THE  STORY  OF  THE  NATIONS 


taMO,  ILLUSTRATED,  PER  VOL.,  $1.50  ;   Yz  LKATHER,  GILT  TOP,  $1.75 
THE    EARLIER  VOLUMES  ARB 

THE  STORY  OF  GREECE.     By  Prof.  Jas.  A.  Harrison 

THE  STORY  OF  ROME.     By  Arthur  Oilman 

THE  STORY  OF  THE  JEWS.     By  Prof.  Jas.  K.  Hosmer 

THE  STORY  OF  CHALDEA.     By  Z.  A.  RAcozm 

THE  STORY  OF  GERiMANY.     By  S.  Baking-Gould 

THE  STORY  OF  NORWAY.     By  Prof.  H.  H.  Boyesen 

THE  STORY  OF  SPAIN.     By  E.  E.  and  Susan  Hale 

THE  STORY  OF  HUNGARY.     By  Prof.  A.  Vamb^ry 

THE  STORY  OF  CARTHAGE.     By  Prof.  Alfred  J.  Church 

THE  STORY  OF  THE  SARACENS.     By  Arthur  Gilman 

THE  STORY  OF  THE  MOORS  IN  SPAIN.     By  Stanley  Lane-Foolh 

THE  STORY  OF  THE  NORMANS.     By  Sarah  O.  Jewett 

THE  STORY  OF  PERSIA.     By  S.  G.  W.  Benjamin 

THE  STORY  OF  ANCIENT  EGYPT.     By  Geo.  Rawlinson 

THE  STORY  OF  ALEXANDER'S  EMPIRE.     By  Prof.  J.  P.  Mahaffy 

THE  STORY  OF  ASSYRIA.     By  Z.  A.  Ragozin 

THE  STORY  OF  IRELAND.     By  Hon.  Emily  Lawless 

THE  STORY  OF  THE  GOTHS.     By  Henry  Bradley 

THE  STORY  OF  TURKEY.     By  Stanley  Lane- Poole 

THE  STORY  OF  MEDIA,  BABYLON,  AND  PERSIA.    By  Z.  A.  Ragozin 

THE  STORY  OF  MEDIAEVAL  FRANCE.     By  Gustave  Masson 

THE  STORY  OF  MEXICO.     By  Susan  Hale 

THE  STORY  OF  HOLLAND.     By  James  E.  Thorold  Rogers. 

THE  STORY  OF  PHCENICIA.     By  George  Rawlinson 

THE  STORY  OF  THE  HANSA  TOWNS.     By  Helen  Zimmern 

THE  STORY  OF  EARLY  BRITAIN.     By  Prof.  Alfred  J.  Church 

THE  STORY  OF  THE  BARBARY  CORSAIRS.     By  Stanley  Lane-Poolb 

THE  STORY  OF  RUSSIA.     By  W.  R.  Morfill 

THE  STORY  OF  THE  JEWS  UNDER  ROME.     By  W.  D.  Morrison 

THE  STORY  OF  SCOTLAND.     By  John  Mackintosh 

THE  STORY  OF  SWITZERLAND.     By  R.  Stead  and  Mrs.  A.  Hug 

THE  STORY  OF  PORTUGAL.     By  H.  Morse  Stephens 

THE  STORY  OF  THE  BYZANTINE  EMPIRE.     By  C.  W.  C.  Oman 

THE  STORY  OF  SICILY.     By  E.  A.  Freeman 

THE  STORY  OF  THF  TUSCAN  REPUBLICS.    By  Bella  Duffy 

THE  STORY  OF  POLAND.    By  W\  R.  Morfill 

THE  STORY  OF  PARTHIA.     By  George  Rawlinson 

THE  STORY  OF  JAPAN.     By  David  Murray 

THE  STORY  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  RECOVERY  OF  SPAIN.    By  H.  E.  Watts 

THE  STORY  OF  AUSTRALASIA.    By  Greville  Tregarthen 

THE  STORY  OF  SOUTHERN  AFRICA.     By  Ge.  \  M.  Theal 

THE  STORY  OF  VENICE.     By  Alethea  Wiel 

THE  STORY  OF  THE  CRUSADES.    By  T.  S.  Archer  and  C.  L.  Kingsford 

THE  STORY  OF  VEDIC  INDIA.     By  Z.  A.  Ragozin 

THE  STORY  OF  BOHEMIA.     By  C.  E.  Maurice 

THE  STORY  OF  CANADA.    By  J.  G.  Bourinot 

THE  STORY  OF  BRITISH  RULE  IN'  INDIA.     By  R.  W.  Frazbr 

THE  STORY  OF  THE  BALKANS.    By  William  Miller 

For  prospectus  of  the  series  see  end  of  this  volume 

THE  COPP    CLARK  CO.,  Limited,  Toronto. 


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THE 


STORY  OF  CANADA 


BY 


J.  G.  BOURINOT,  C.M.G.,  LL.D.,  D.C.L 

CLERK   OF   THE  CANADIAN    HOUSE  OF    COMMONS;    HONORARY   SECRETARY    OF    THE 

ROYAL  SOCIETY  OF  CANADA  ;    DOCTEUR-ES-LETTKES  <  >F  I.AVAL  LNIVERSITY 

HONORAHV  MEMBER  OF  THE  AMERICAN  ANTK^UAKIAN  SOCIETY 

AUTHOK  OF  SEVERAL  WORKS  ON  THE  CONSTITCTION 

AND    HISTI   K^     OF    CANADA 


1896 


New  York  :  G.  P.  PUTNAM'S  SONS 

London:        T.  FISHER  UNWIN 

Toronto:      THE  COPP,  CLARK  CO.,  Limited 


Copyright,  1896 

BY 

G.  P.  PUTNAM'S  SONS 

Entered  at  Stationers'  Hall,  London 

By  T.  FISHER  UNWIN 


Ube  *nicfc<rbocfcer  preea,  "ttcw  Morli 


I  Dedicate  this  Story  of  Canada 

BY     PERMISSION 
TO 

HER    EXCELLENXY   THE   COUNTESS   OF   ABERDEEN 

WHO  HAS  WON  THE  ESTEEM  AND  AFFECTION  OF  ALL  CLASSES 

OF  THE  CANADIAN  PEOPLE  BY  THE  EARNESTNESS  WITH 

WHICH   SHE    HAS    IDENTIFIED    HERSELF    WITH 

EVERY  MOVEMENT  AFFECTING  THE  SOCIAL 

AND  INTELLECTUAL  PROGRESS  OF 

THE   NEW    DOMINION 


/k 


PREFATORY  NOTE. 


In  writing  this  story  of  Canada  I  have  not  been 
able  to  do  more,  within  the  Hmited  space  at  my 
command,  than  briefly  review  those  events  which 
have  exercised  the  most  influence  on  the  national 
development  of  the  Dominion  of  Canada  from  the 
memorable  days  bold  French  adventurers  made  their 
first  attempts  at  settlement  on  the  banks  of  the 
beautiful  basin  of  the  Annapolis,  and  on  the  pictu- 
resque heights  of  Quebec,  down  to  the  establish- 
ment of  a  Confederation  which  extends  from  the 
Atlantic  to  the  Pacific  Ocean.  Whilst  the  narrative 
of  the  French  regime,  with  its  many  dramatic  epi- 
sodes, necessarily  occupies  a  large  part  of  this  story, 
I  have  not  allowed  myself  to  forget  the  importance 
that  must  be  attached  to  the  development  of  in- 
stitutions of  government  and  their  effect  on  the 
social,  intellectual,  and  material  conditions  of  the 
people  since  the  beginning  of  the  English  regime. 
Though  this  story,  strictly  speaking,  ends  with  the 
successful  accomplishment  of  the  federal  union  of 
all  the  provinces  in  1873,  when  Prince  Edward  Island 
became  one  of  its  members,  I  have  deemed  it  neces- 
sary to  refer  briefly  to  those  events    which   have 


vi  PREFA  TOR  Y  NO  TE, 

happened  since  that  time — the  second  half-breed  re- 
bellion Oi  1885,  for  instance — and  have  had  much  ef- 
fect on  the  national  spirit  of  the  people.    I  endeavour 
to  interest  my  reader  in  the  public  acts  of  those  emi- 
nent men  whose  names  stand  out  most  prominently 
on  the  pages  of  history,  and  have  made  the  deepest 
impress    on    the    fortunes   and    institutions   of    the 
Dominion.     In  the  performance  of  this  task  I  have 
always  consulted  original  authorities,  but  have  not 
attempted  to  go  into  any  historical  details  except 
those  which  are  absolutely  necessary  to  the  intelli- 
gent  understanding  of  the  great  events  and   men 
of  C^^nadian  annals.      I  have  not  entered  into  the 
intrigues  and  conflicts  which  have  been  so  bitter 
and  frequent  during  the  operation  of  parliamentary 
government  in  a  country  where  politicians  are  so 
numerous,  and  statesmanship  is  so  often  hampered 
and  government  injuriously  affected  by  the  selfish 
interests  of  party,  but  have  simply  given  the  con- 
spicuous and  dominant  results  of    political   action 
since  the  concession  of  representative  institutions  to 
the  provinces  of  British  North  America.    A  chapter 
is  devoted,  at  the  close  of  the  historical  narrative, 
to  a  very  brief  review  of  the  intellectual  and  material 
development  of  the  country,  and  of  the  nature  of  its 
institutions  of  government.     A  survey  is  also  given 
of  the  customs  and  conditions  of  the  French  Cana- 
dian people,  so  that  the  reader  outside  of  the  Domin- 
ion may  have  some  conception  of  their  institutions 
and  of  their  influence  on  the  political,  social,  and 
intellectual  life  of  a  Dominion,  of  whose  population 
they  form  so  important  and  influential  an  element. 


PREFATORY  NOTE, 


Vll 


The  illustrations  are  numerous,  and  have  been  care- 
fully selected  from  various  sources,  not  accessible  to 
the  majorit}  of  students,  with  the  object,  not  simply 
of  pleasing  the  general  reader,  but  rather  of  eluci- 
dating the  historical  narrative.  A  bibliographical 
note  has  also  been  added  of  those  authorities  which 
the  author  has  consulted  in  writing  this  story,  and  to 
which  the  reader,  who  wishes  to  pursue  the  subject 
further,  may  most  advantageously  refer. 

House  of  Commons,  Ottawa, 
Dominion  Day,  i8g6. 


CONTENTS. 

FACE 

Bibliographical  Notk xix 

I. 

Introduction — Thk  Canadian  Dominion  from  Ocean  to 

Ocean .        i 

II. 

The  Dawn  oi   Discovery  in  Canada  {1497-1525)         .        .       19 

III. 

A  Breion  Saii.ok  Discovers  Canada  and  its  Great  River 

(1534-1536) 29 

IV. 

From  Cartier  10  De  Monts  (1540-1603)       .         .         .         .44 

V. 

The  French  Occupation  of  Acadia  and  the  Foundation 

of  Port  Royal  (1604-1614) 51 

VI. 

Samuel  Champlain  in  the  Valley  of  the  St.  Lawrence 

(1608-1635) 67 

VII. 
Gentlemen-Adventurers  in  Acadia  (1614-1677)         .        •92 


X  CONTENTS. 

VI 11. 

PAGE 

The  Canadian  Indians  and  the  Iroquois:  their  Organ- 
isation, Character,  and  Customs        .        .        .        .110 

IX. 

Convents  and  Hospitals — Ville-Marie — Martyred  Mis- 
sionaries—  Victorious  Iroquois — Hapless  Hurons 
(1635-1652) 129 

X. 

Years  of  Gloom — The  King  Comes  to   the  Rescue  ok 

Canada — The  Iroquois  Humbled  (1652-1667)      .        .     146 

XI. 

Canada  as  a  Royal  Province — Church  and  State  (1663- 

1759) 156 

Xll. 

The  Period  of  Exploration  and  Discovery — Priests, 
Fi  r-Traders,  and  Coureurs  de  Bois  in  the  West  (1634- 
1687) 168 

XIII. 

The  Period  of  Exploration  and  Discovery — France  in 

THE  Valley  OF  the  Mississippi  (1672-1687)  .        .        .     177 

XIV. 

Canada  and  Acadia — From  Frontenac  to  the  Treaty 

OF  Utrecht  (1672-1713) 192 

XV. 

Acadia  and  Ile  Royale — From  the  Treaty  of  Utrecht  to 

the  Treaty  of  Aix-la-Chapelle  (1713-1748)        .        .     210 

XVI. 

The  Struggle  for  Dominion  in  the  Great  Valleys  of 

North  America — Prelude  (1748-1756) .        ,        ,        .     221 


CONTIlNTS,  XI 

XVII. 

PACE 

Thb  Struggle  for  Dominion  in  the  Great  Valleys  ov 
North  America — English  Reverses  and  French  Vic- 
tories— Fall  of  Louisbourg  and  Fort  Duquesne 
(1756-1758) 237 

XVIII. 

The  Struggle  for  Dominion  in  the  Valley  of  the  St. 
Lawrence — Canada  is  Won  by  Wolfe  on  the  Plains 
of  Abraham  (175Q-1763) 247 

XIX. 

A  Period  of  Transition — Pontiac's  War — The  Quebec 

Act  (i 760-1 774)      .        . 267 

XX. 

The  American  Revolution — Invasion  of  Canada — Death 

of  Montgomery-t Peace  (i 774-1 783)     ....     280 

XXI. 

Coming  of  THE  Loyalists  (1783-1 791) 291 

XXII. 

Foundation  of  New  Provinces — Establishment  of  Repre- 
sentative Institutions  (i 792-1 812)      ....    302 

XXIII. 
The  War  of  1812-1815 — Patriotism  of  the  Canadians     .    316 

XXIV. 

Political  Strife  and  Rebellion  (181 5-1840)       .        .        .    338 

XXV. 

Responsible  Government  and  iii  Results — Federal 
Union — Relations  between  Canada  and  the  United 
States  (1839-1867) .    361 


Xll 


CONTENTS. 
XXVI. 


PACK 


End  r)F  iHK  Rile  of  Flr-Traders — Acqiisition  of  the 
Northwest — Formation  of  Mamtoija— Kiel's  Kebel- 
I, IONS— The  Indians  (1670-1S85) 3S0 

XXVII. 

British  Columbia  and  Prince  Edwari)  Island  Enter  the 
Union — National  Events  since  1867— Makers  of  ihe 
Dominion  (1867-1891) 404 

XXVIII. 

Canada  as  a  Nation — Material  and  Intellectual  De- 
velopment— Political  Rights 415 

XXIX. 
French  Canada 426 


Index 


451 


LIST  OF  ILLUSTRATIONS. 


PAGE 

CHATEAU    OF    ST.    LOUIS  (1694-1834)  *    DESTROYED 

BY  FIRE  IN  1834  ....        Frontispiece. 

Frovi    a    drawing   by    IV.    J.    Sewell   in    Htnokins's 
'' Pichtres  of  Quebec"  {Quebec,  1834). 

MAP    OF    CANADA I 

Revised  to  date  by  Surveyor-General  Devi  lie,  F.  K.  S.  C. 

VIEW     OF     CAPE     TRINITY      ON     THE     LAURENTIAN 

RANGE  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  •  Q 

From  a  photograph  by  Top  ley,  Ottawa. 


ROCKY  MOUNTAINS  AT  DONALD,  BRITISH  COLUMBIA, 
From  Sir  IV.  Van  Home's  Collection  of  B.   C.  photo, 
graphs. 

UPPER  END  OF  ERASER  CAJ^ON,  BRITISH  COLUMBIA  . 
Ibid. 


13 


15 

25 


SKETCH    OF    JUAN    DE    LA   COSA  S  MAP,  A.D.   1500       . 
From  Dr.  S.  E.  Dawson's  "  Cabot  Voyages''  in  Trans. 
Roy.  Soc.  Can.,  1894, 

*  To  explain  these  dates  it  is  necessary  to  note  that  Champlain 
lived  for  years  in  one  of  the  buildings  of  the  Fort  of  Saint  Louis 
which  he  first  erected,  and  the  name  chateau  is  often  applied  to  that 
structure  ;  but  the  chateau,  properly  so-called,  was  not  commenced 
until  1647,  and  it  as  well  as  its  successors  was  within  the  limits  of  the 
fort.  It  was  demolished  in  1694  by  Governor  Frontenac,  who  re- 
built it  on  the  original  foundations,  and  it  was  this  castle  which,  in 
a  remodelled  and  enlarged  form,  under  the  English  regime,  lasted 
until  1834. 

•  •• 

XIll 


xiv  List  oP"  illustrations, 

PAGE 

PORTRAIT  OF  JACQUES    C ARTIER        .  .  .  -31 

From   B.    Suites   '^  I/istoire  des   Canadiens-Fram^ais'* 
{Montreal,  i882-'84). 

ANCIENT    HOCHELAGA 39 

From  Ramusid  s  *'  Aavigationi  e  Viaggi''  {Venice,  1565). 

THE     "dauphin     map"     OF     CANADA,    circa     1543, 

SHOWING    CARTIER's    DISCOVERIES  ...         44 

From  collection  of  maps  in  Parliamentary  Library  at 
Ottawa. 

PLAN    OF    PORT    ROYAL    IN    ACADIA    IN    1605     .  ,         57 

From  Champlaiti* s  7vorks,  rare  Paris  ed.  of  itn'}. 

CHAMPLAIN's    PORTRAIT 69 

From  B,  Suite's  ''''  Histoire  des  Canadiens-Fran^ais,'* 

HABITATION    DE    QUEBEC 7 1 

From.  Champlain' s  works,  rare  Paris  ed.  of  161 3. 

CHAMPLAIN's    LOST    ASTROLABE  •  •  •  •         79 

From  sketch  by  A.  y.  Russell,  of  Otta^ua^  1879. 

ONONDAGA    FORT    IN    THE    IROQUOIS    COUNTRY  .         83 

From  Champlain^s  works,  rare  Paris  ed.  of  iti^. 

INDIAN    COSTUMES Ill 

From  Laftaus  "  Maurs  des  Sauvages"  {Paris,  1724). 

IROQUOIS   LONG    HOUSE ,119 

From    Morgan  s    "  Houses    and   Home  Life    of   the 
Aborigines''  {Washington,  1881). 

PORTRAIT     OF     MARIE     GUYARD     (mEIRE     MARIE    DE 

l'incarnation) 131 

From  B.  Suite's  "''Histoire  des  Canadiens-Francais." 

PORTRAIT    OF    MAISONNEUVE    .  .  .  .  .       I35 

IHd, 

PORTRAIT    OF    LAVAL,    FIRST    CANADIAN    BISHOP       .       159 
IHd, 


LIST  OF  ILLUSTRATIONS, 


XV 


PAGE 

CARD     ISSUE     (paper      MONEY)     OF     1 7  29,     FO.;     12 

LIVRES 162 

From    Breton  s    *'  Illustrated  History    of   Coins    and 
Tokens  Relating  to  Canada"  {Montreal,  1S92). 

CANADIAN    FIFTEEN    SOL    PIECE  ....      163 

IHd. 

CANADIAN    TRAPPER I73 

From  La  Potherie's  **Histoire  de  T Amdrique  Septeti' 
trionale"'  {Paris ^  1753). 

PORTRAIT  AND  AUTOGRAPH  OF  CAVELIER  DE  LA 

SALLE  .     .     .     .     .     .     .     .     ,185 

B,  Suites  "^ Ilistoire  des  Canadiens-Frauijais." 

FONTENAC,  FROM  HEBERT's    STATUE    AT  QUEBEC       .       I93 
From  Dr.  Stewarfs  collection  of  Qttebec  photographs . 

CAPTURE    OF    FORT     NELSON    IN     HUDSON     BAY,    BY 

THE    FRENCH 205 

From  La  Pothe'rie's  **  Ilistoire  de  TAme'rique  Septen' 
trionaUy 

PORTRAIT    OF    CHEVALIER    d'iBERVILLF    .  .  .       209 

Froth  a  portrait  in  Margr/s  "  Decouvertes  et  ^tabiisse- 
ments  des  Francais  dans  le  Sud  de  V Amdriqtie 
Septentrional  {Paris,  i876-'83). 


VIEW    OF    LOUISBOURG    IN    1 73 1  .  .  .  .      2IO 

From  a  sketch  in  the  Paris  A  rchives, 

MAP   OF    FRENCH    FORTS    IN    AMERICA,   1750-60  .       221 

From  Bourinofs  "  Cape  Breton  and  its  Memorials  of 
the  French  Regime'''  {Montreal,  1891). 

PORTRAIT    OF    MONTCALM  ....  .       239 

From  B.  Suite's  *'■  Ilistoire  des  Canadiens-Fran^ais." 

LOUISBOURG    MEDALS    OF    1 758  ....       244 

From  Bourinot's  "  Cape  Breton,''  etc. 


XVI  USroi'JLLUSTAAl'lOXS. 

PACK 

PORTRAIT    OF    WOLFE 249 

From  print  in  ".4  Complete  History  of  the  Late  IVar," 
etc.  {London  and  Duttlin^  1774),  ^y  Wright. 

PLAN    OF    OPERATIONS    AT   SIKOE   OF  gUKBEC    .  .       25I 

Made  from  a  more  extended  plan  in    '  The   Universal 
Magazine''  {London^  Dec.,  1859). 

MONTCALM    AND    WOLFE    MONUMENT    AT   QUEBEC    .       261 
from  Dr.  Stewart's  collection  of  Quebec  photoi^raphs. 

VIEW    OF    QUEBEC    IN     1760         .....       263 
From  "The  Universal  Magazine''  {London,  17O0). 

VIEW    OF    MONTREAL    IN     1760  ....       265 

Ibid. 

portrait    and    autograph    of    joseph    bran  i' 
(thavendanegea)      299 

From  Stone's  '' Li fe  of  Joseph  Brant  "  original ed.  {Xew 
York,  1838). 

PRESCOTT    gate    and    bishop's    PALACE    IN    1800     .       307 

From  a  sketch  by  A.  J.  Russell  in  Ilaii.'kins's  "Pictures 
of  Quebec" 

PORTRAIT    OF    LIEUT. -GENERAL  SIMCOE    .  .  •      S'l 

From   Dr.    Scadding's   "  Toronto  of  Old"   {Toronto, 
1873). 

PORTRAIT    OF    MAJ. -GENERAL    BROCK  .  .  .       323 

From  a  picture  in  possession  of  y.  A .  Macdonell,  Esq. , 
of  A  lexandria ,  Ontario. 

PORTRAIT    OF    COLONEL   DE    SALABERRV  .  .  .      329 

From  F'ennings  Taylor  s  "Portraits  of  British  Ameri- 
cans" {W.  Notman,  Montreal,  i865-'C7). 

MONUMENT    AT    LUNDV's    LANE  .  .  .  .       T^^T^ 

From  a  photograph   through  courtesy  of  Rev.   Canon 
Bull,  Niagara  South,  Ont. 


Lisr  OF  ILLUHTKATJOy^, 


XVII 


pOklKAIT    OF    I-OUIS    J.     PAPINF.au    .  .  .  . 

Ftom  F tunings  Taylor's  '^ Portraits  of  British,  Ameri^ 
cans." 

PORTRAIT    OF    I5ISHOP    STRACHAN      .  .  .  . 

JhiU. 

PORTRAM     OF    VV.    LYON    MACKKNZIF. 

Front  C.  Lindsey's  ^' Life  and  Times  of  li\  L.  Mac- 
kenzie'' (  Toronto,  1863). 

PORTRAIT     OF      JUDCF      HALIHURTON,      AUTHOR     OF 

"the  clock-maker" 

From  a  portrait  i^ivt'it  toaitthor  hy  Mr.  /'.  Hlake  Crofton 
of  Legislative  Library,  Halifax,  \.  S. 

PORlRAir    OF    JOSEPH    HOWE     ..... 
From  L'ennings  Taylor  s  ''Portraits  of  British  Ameri- 
cans J" 

PORTRAir    OF    ROBERT    P>ALnWlN       .  .  .  . 

Ibid. 

PORTRAIT    i^V    E.    H.   LAFONIAINE       .... 
Ibid. 

PORTRAIT    OF    E.    A.     WILMOT    ..... 
Frotn  Lathern  s"^  Biographical  Sketch  ofyndge  IVilmot" 
{^Toronto,  1881). 

FORT    GARRY    AND    A   RED  RIVER    STEAMER  IN    1870, 
From  A.  y.  RnsselFs  "' Red Ri7<er  Country''  {.Montreal, 
1S70). 

PORIRAIT    OF    LIEUT. -COLONEL    WILLIAMS 
From  a  photograph  by  Topley,  Ottaioa. 

INDIAN    CARVED    POSTS   IN    BRITISH    COLUMBIA 

From  photograph  by  Dr.  Da^vson,  C.M.G.,  Director  of 
Geological  Survey  of  Canada. 

PORTRAIT    OF    SIR    JOHN    MACDONALD 

From   L.  y .    Tache's   ' '  Canadian    Portrait  Gallery  " 
{Montreal,  1890-93). 


PACK 


347 
349 


359 

365 

369 
371 


y 


89 


399 

401 

405 


xviii 


II ST  Oh   ILLUSTRATIONS, 


ARMS   OF    TTTF    PRf>VI\c:F.S  ..... 

From  Hout  inot's  "J/ow  CauaJa  is  Go7,'rtiii/"  (  Toronto, 

1895). 

I'ORTR.MI     OK     HON.    C.KORCiK    URoWN 
From  pholo<^raf>h. 

PoklUAir    OK    SIR    r.KoRC.F    F.    CARTIKR    . 

From  H.  Siilles  "'I/istoire  des  CatiuHtUs-frinniis.'' 

PARl.lAMKXI     I'.rU.DINC.     A  I'    OI'I  AWA 
From  a  pliofo<^riiph  hy  Top/n\  Otfti^cn. 

(,>ukima:   in    1S96      ...... 

I'rom  Dr.  Stt'-cuir/'s  tWli/ion  of  Qu<luc photoi^raphs. 

STRKKI     SCKNK    IN     A     KRKNCll     CANADIAN      VILLAGE 

NKAk    (jlKHKC         ....... 

Jhiii. 

OLD      t  HLKCH       AT       RONNK      STK,      ANNK,      WMKRE 
.MlkAi  I.KS    WKRK     I'KRKOR.MKD  .  .  .  . 

Jhid. 

A    CANADIAN    CALECHF    OK    OLD    TIMKS     . 

From    Welds  '■"Travels  in  Xort/i  Ameriea'"  {London, 

I7Q9)- 
PORTRAIT      OK      LOUIS      KRKCHKTTR,     THE      KRENCH 

CANADIAN    POKT  .  ...... 

From  L.  J.   Taclus  ''Canadian  Portrait  Gallery ." 

PORTRAIT      OK       HON.      WILFRID       LAURIER,       KIRST 
KRENCH    CANADIAN    PREMIER    OF    THE  DOMINION, 
Ibid. 


MGK 

407 

409 
411 

421 


429 


433 
437 


441 


447 


BIBLIOGRAPHICAL  NOTE, 


Jacques  Cartier's  Voyat^cs,  in  English,  by  Joseph  Pope  (Ottawa, 
i88g),  and  H.  B.  Stephens  (Montreal,  1S91) ;  in  French,  by  N.  E. 
Dionne  (Quebec,  1891);  Toiion  de  Longrais  (Rennes,  France),  H. 
Michelant  and  E.  Ramc  (Paris,  1S67).  L'Escarbot's  N'e7u  France, 
in  French,  Tress's  ed.  (Paris,  1S66),  which  contains  an  account  ^Iso 
of  Cartier's  first  voyage.  Sagard's  History  of  Canada,  in  French, 
Tross's  ed.  (Paris,  1866).  Champlai'i's  works,  in  French,  Laver- 
dicre's  ed.  (Quebec,  1870)  ;  Prince  Society's  English  ed.  (Boston, 
187S-80).  Latitau's  Customs  of  the  Savages,  in  French  (Paris,  1724). 
Charlevoix's  History  of  New  France,  in  French  (Paris,  1744)  ; 
Shea's  English  version  (New  York,  1866).  Jesuit  Relations,  in 
French  (Quebec  ed.,  1S58).  Ferland's  Courst  of  Canadian  History, 
in  French  (Quebec,  1861-1865).  Garneau's  Jiistory  of  Canada,  in 
French  (Montreal,  1882).  Suite's  French  Canadians,  in  French 
(Montreal,  1SS2-S4).  F.  Parkman's  series  of  histories  of  French 
Regime,  viz.  :  Pioneers  of  France  in  the  A^eiv  World ;  The  fesuits 
in  North  America  ;  The  old  Regime  ;  Front enac  ;  The  Discovery  of 
the  Great  West ;  A  Hilf  Century  of  Conflict ;  Montcalm  and  Wolfe; 
Conspiracy  of  Pontiac  (Boston,  1865-1884).  Justin  Winsor's  i^r<?;w 
Cartier  to  Frontenac  (Boston,  1894).  Ilannay's  Acadia  (St.  John, 
N.  B.,  1879).  W.  Kingsford's  History  of  Canada,  8  vols,  so  far 
(Toronto  and  London,  1S87-1S96),  the  eighth  volume  on  the  war  of 
1812  being  especially  valuable.  Bourinot's  "Cape  Breton  and  its 
Memorials  of  the  French  Regime,"  Trans.  Roy.  Foe.  Can.,  vol.  ix,  and 
separate  ed.  (Montreal,  1891).  Casgrain's  Montcalm  and  Levis,  in 
P'rench  (Quebec,  1891).  HaliburtonV,  Nova  ,S<ra//a  (Halifax,  1S29). 
Murdoch's  ^A'^^'a  Scotia  (Halifax,  1865-67).  Campbell's  Nova  Scotia 
(Halifax,  1S73).     Campbell's  Prince  Edward  Island  (Charlottetown, 

xix 


XX  BlBLlOGKArmCAL  NOTE, 

1875).  Lord  Durham's  ^<'/or/,  1830.  Q\\nsi\t%  History  0/ Lotver 
Canada  ((Quebec,  1848-1S55).  Dent's  Story  0/  the  Upper  Canadian 
Kfhillion  (Toronto,  1S55).  Lindsey's  W.  Lyon  Mackenzie  (Toron- 
to, 1873).  Dent's  Canada  since  the  ('nion  of  tS^i  (Toronto,  1880- 
81).  Turcotte's  Canada  tinder  t he  Union,  in  French  (Quebec,  1871). 
IJourinot's  Manual  of  Consti/utionaf  //istory  {Monircal,  1888),  "Fed- 
eral (lovernment  in  Canada"  Ufohns  Hopkins  University  Studies, 
Ilaltimore,  i88()),  and  How  Canada  is  Governed  (Toronto,  l895)- 
Withrow's  Popular  History  of  Canada  {XmoxiKo,  1888).  MacMul- 
len's  History  of  Canada  {^XQKVs'xWt,  1S92).  fiegg's  History  of  the 
Northwest  (Toronto,  i8()4).  Canniff's  History  of  Ontario  (Toronto, 
1S72).  Egerton  Ryerson's  Loyalists  of  America  (Toronto,  1880). 
Mrs.  Edgar's  Ten  Years  of  Upper  Canada  in  Peace  and  War 
(Toronto,   i8go). 

For  a  full  bibliography  of  archives,  maps,  essays,  and  books  relat- 
ing to  the  periods  covered  by  the  Story  of  Canada,  and  used  by  the 
writer,  see  ajjpendix  to  his  "Cape  Breton  and  its  Memorials,"  in 
which  all  authorities  bearing  on  the  Norse,  Cabot,  and  other  early 
voyages  are  cited.  Also,  appendix  to  same  author's  '*  Parliamentary 
Government  in  Canada  "(  Trans.  A'oy.  Soc.  Can.,  vol.  xi.,  and  Ameri- 
can Hist.  Ass.  Report,  Washington,  iSgi).  Also  his  "  Canada's  In- 
tellectual Strength  and  Weakness"  (  7>a«j.  Poy.  Soc.  Can.,  vol.  xi, 
and  separate  volume,  Montreal,  1891).  Also,  Winsor's  Narrative 
and  Critical  History  of  America  (Boston,  1886-89). 


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>A-i 


THE  STORY  OF  CANADA. 


I. 


INTRODUCTION. 


THE  CANADIAN  DOMINION  FROM  OCEAN  TO  OCEAN. 


The  view  from  the  spacious  terrace  on  the  verge 
of  the  cliffs  of  Quebec,  the  ancient  capital  of  Canada, 
cannot  fail  to  impress  the  imagination  of  the  states- 
man or  student  versed  in  the  history  of  the  Ameri- 
can continent,  as  well  as  delight  the  eye  of  the  lover 
of  the  picturesque.  Below  the  heights,  to  whose 
rocks  and  buildings  cling  so  many  memories  of  the 
past,  flows  the  St.  Lawrence,  the  great  river  of 
Canada,  bearing  to  the  Atlantic  the  waters  of  the 
numerous  lakes  and  streams  of  the  valley  which  was 
first  discovered  and  explored  by  France,  and  in 
which  her  statesmen  paw  the  elements  of  empire. 
We  see  the  tinned  roofs,  spires  and  crosses  of  quaint 
churches,  hospitals  and  convents,  narrow  streets 
winding  among  the  rocks,  black-robed   priests  and 


2  THE   STORY  OF  CANADA, 

sombre  nuns,  Jiabitans  in  homespun  from  the  neigh- 
bouring villages,  modest  gambrel-roofed    houses  of 
the  past  crowded  almost  out  of  sight  by  obtrusive 
lofty  structures  of  the  present,  the  massive  buildings 
of  the  famous  seminary  and   university  which  bear 
the  name  of   Laval,  the  first  great  bishop  of  that 
Church  which  has  always  dominated  French  Canada. 
Not  far  from  the  edge  of  the  terrace  stands  a  monu- 
ment on  which  are  inscribed  the  names  of  Montcalm 
and  Wolfe,  enemies  in  life  but  united  in  death  and 
fame.     Directly  below  is  the  market  which   recalls 
the  name  of  Champlain,  the  founder  of  Quebec,  and 
his  first  Canadian  home  at  the  margin  of  the  river. 
On  the  same  historic  ground  we  see  the  high-peaked 
roof  and   antique  spire  of  the  curious  old  church, 
Notre- Dame  des  Victoires,  which  was  first  built  to 
commemorate  the  repulse  of   an   English  fleet  two 
centuries  ago.     Away  beyond,  to  the  left,  we  catch 
a  glimpse  of  the  meadows  and  cottages  of  the  beau- 
tiful Isle  of  Orleans,  and  directly  across  the  river  are 
the  rocky  hills  covered  with  the  buildings  of  the 
town,  which  recalls  the  services  of  L^vis,  whose  fame 
as  a  soldier  is  hardly  overshadowed  by  that  of  Mont- 
calm.    The  Union-jack  floats  on  the  tall  staff  of  the 
citadel  which  crowns  the  summit  of  Cape  Diamond, 
but  English  voices  are  lost  amid  those  of  a  people 
who  still  speak  the  language  of  France. 

As  we  recall  the  story  of  these  heights,  we  can  see 
passing  before  us  a  picturesque  procession  :  Sailors 
from  the  home  of  maritime  enterprise  on  the  Breton 
and  Biscayan  coasts,  Indian  warriors  in  their  paint  and 
savage  finery,  gentlemen-adventurers  and  pioneers, 


INTRODUCTION. 


rovers  of  the  forest  and  river,  statesmen  and  soldiers 
of  high  ambition,  gentle  and  cultured  women  who 
gave  up  their  lives  to  alleviate  suffering  and  teach 
the  vounir,  missionaries  devoted  to  a  faith  for  which 
many  have  died.  In  the  famous  old  castle  of  Saint 
Louis,*  long  since  levelled  to  the  ground — whose 
foundations  are  beneath  a  part  of  this  very  terrace — 
statesmen  feasted  and  dreamt  of  a  French  Empire 
in  North  America.  Then  the  French  dominion 
passed  away  with  the  fall  of  Quebec,  and  the  old 
English  colonies  were  at  last  relieved  from  that 
pressure  which  had  confined  them  so  long  to  the 
Atlantic  coast,  and  enabled  to  become  free  common- 
wealths with  great  possibilities  of  development  be- 
fore them.  Yet,  while  England  lost  so  much  in 
America  by  the  War  of  Independence,  there  still 
remained  to  her  a  vast  northern  territory,  stretching 
far  to  the  east  and  west  from  Quebec,  and  containing 
all  the  rudiments  of  national  life — 

'*  The  raw  materials  of  a  State, 
Its  muscle  and  its  mind." 

A  century  later  than  that  Treaty  of  Paris  which 
was  signed  in  the  palace  of  Versailles,  and  ceded 
Canada  finally  to  England,  the  statesmen  of  the 
provinces  of  this  northern  territory,  which  was  still 
a  British  possession, — statesmen  of  P'rench  as  well  as 
English  Canada — assembled  in  an  old  building  of 
this  same  city,  so  rich  in  memories  of  old  France, 

♦See  frontispiece.  The  first  terrace,  named  after  Lord  Durham, 
was  built  on  the  foundations  of  the  castle.  In  recent  years  the  plat- 
form has  been  extended  and  renamed  Dufiferin,  in  honour  of  a  popu- 
lar governor-general. 


4  THE   STORY  OF  CANADA. 

and  took  the  first  steps  towards  the  estabHshment 
of  that  Dominion,  which,  since  then,  has  reached  the 
Pacific  shores. 

It  is  the  story  of  this  Canadian  Dominion,  of  its 
founders,  explorers,  missionaries,  soldiers,  and  states- 
men, that  I  shall  attempt  to  relate  briefly  in  the  fol- 
lowing pages,  from  the  day  the  Breton  sailor  ascend- 
ed the  St.  Lawrence  to  Hochelaga  until  the  forma- 
tion of  the  confederation,  which  united  the  people 
of  two  distinct  nationalities  and  extends  over  so 
wide  a  region — so  far  beyond  the  Acadia  and  Canada 
which  France  once  called  her  own.  But  that  the 
story  may  be  more  intelligible  from  the  beginning, 
it  is  necessary  to  give  a  bird's-eye  view  of  the  coun- 
try, whose  history  is  contemporaneous  with  that  of 
the  United  States,  and  whose  territorial  area  from 
Cape  Breton  to  Vancouver — the  sentinel  islands  of 
the  Atlantic  and  Pacific  approaches — is  hardly  in- 
ferior to  that  of  the  federal  republic. 

Although  the  population  of  Canada  at  present 
does  not  exceed  five  millions  of  souls,  the  country 
has,  within  a  few  years,  made  great  strides  in  the 
path  of  national  development,  and  fairly  takes  a 
place  of  considerable  importance  among  those  na- 
tions whose  stories  have  been  already  told  ;  whose 
history  goes  back  to  centuries  when  the  Laurentian 
Hills,  those  rocks  of  primeval  times,  looked  down  on 
an  unbroken  wilderness  of  forest  and  stretches  of 
silent  river.  If  w^e  treat  the  subject  from  a  strictly 
historical  point  of  view,  the  confederation  of  prov- 
inces and  territories  comprised  within  the  Do- 
minion  may   be   most   conveniently  grouped    into 


ISTKODUCTtON. 


5 


several  distinct  divisions.  Geographers  divide  the 
whole  countrv  IvinLT  between  the  two  oceans  into 
three  well-defined  regions:  i.  The  Easter'i,  extend- 
ing from  the  Atlantic  to  the  head  of  Lake  Superior. 
2.  The  Central,  stretching  across  the  prairies  and 
plains  to  the  base  of  the  Rocky  Mountains.  3.  The 
Western,  comprising  that  sea  of  mountains  which 
at  last  unites  with  the  waters  of  the  Pacific.  For 
the  purposes  of  this  narrative,  however,  the  Eastern 
and  largest  division — also  the  oldest  historically — 
must  be  separated  into  two  distinct  divisions, 
known  as  Acadia  and  Canada  in  the  early  annals 
of  America. 

The  first  division  of  the  Eastern  region  now  com- 
prises the  provinces  of  Nova  Scotia,  New  Bruns- 
wick, and  Prince  Edward  Island,  which,  formerly, 
with  a  large  portion  of  the  State  of  Maine,  were  best 
known  as  Acadie,*  a  memorial  of  the  Indian  occupa- 
tion before  the  French  regime.  These  provinces  are 
indented  by  noble  harbours  and  bays,  and  many 
deep  rivers  connect  the  sea-board  with  the  interior. 
They  form  the  western  and  southern  boundaries  of 
that  great  gulf  or  eastern  portal  of  Canada,  which 
maritime  adventurers  explored  from  the  earliest 
period  of  which  we  have  any  record.  Ridges  of  the 
Appalachian  range  stretch    from   New   England  to 


*  Akddc  means  a  place  or  district  in  the  language  of  the  Micmacs 
or  Souriqnois,  the  most  important  Indian  tribe  in  the  Eastern  pro- 
vinces, and  is  always  united  with  another  word,  signifying  some  natu- 
ral characteristic  of  the  locality.  For  instance,  the  wel^-known  river 
in  Nova  Scotia,  Shubenacadie  (S^gebun-akide),  the  place  where  the 
ground-nut  or  Indian  potato  grows. 


6  THE  STORY  OF  CAXADA. 

the  east  of  these  Acadian  provinces,  pving  pictur- 
esque features  to  a  generally  undulating  surface,  and 
find  their  boldest  expression  in  the  northern  region 
of  the  island  of  Cape  Breton.  The  peninsula  of 
Nova  Scotia  is  connected  with  the  neighbouring 
province  of  New  Brunswick  by  a  narrow  isthmus, 
on  one  side  of  which  the  great  tides  of  the  Bay  of 
Fundy  tumultuously  beat,  and  is  separated  by  a 
very  romantic  strait  from  the  island  of  Cape  Breton. 
Both  this  isthmus  and  island,  we  shall  see  in  the 
course  of  this  narrative,  played  important  parts  in 
the  struggle  between  France  and  England  for  do- 
minion in  America.  This  Acadian  division  possesses 
large  tracts  of  fertile  lands,  and  valuable  mines  of 
coal  and  other  minerals.  In  the  richest  district  of 
the  peninsula  of  Nova  Scotia  were  the  thatch- 
roofed  villages  of  those  Acadian  farmers  whose  sad 
story  has  been  told  in  matchless  verse  by  a  New 
England  poet,  and  whose  language  can  still  be  heard 
throughout  the  land  they  loved,  and  to  which  some 
of  them  returned  after  years  of  exile.  The  inex- 
haustible fisheries  of  the  Gulf,  whose  waters  wash 
their  shores,  centuries  ago  attracted  fleets  of  adven- 
turous sailors  from  the  Atlantic  coast  of  Europe, 
and  led  to  the  discovery  of  Canada  and  the  St. 
Lawrence.  It  was  with  the  view  of  protecting  these 
fisheries,  and  guarding  the  great  entrance  to  New 
France,  that  the  French  raised  on  the  southeastern 
shores  of  Cape  Breton  the  fortress  of  Louisbourg,  the 
ruins  of  which  now  alone  remain  to  tell  of  their  ambi- 
tion and  enterprise. 

Leaving  Acadia,  we  come  to  the  provinces  which 


INTRODUCriOX.  7 

are  watered  by  the  St.  Lawrence  and  the  Great 
Lakes,  extending  from  the  Gulf  tt)  the  head  of  Lake 
Superior,  and  finding  their  northern  limits  in  the 
waters  of  Hudson's  Bay.  The  name  of  Canada  ap- 
pears to  be  also  a  memorial  of  the  Indian  nations 
that  once  occupied  the  region  between  the  Ottawa 
and  Saguenay  rivers.  This  name,  meaning  a  large 
village  or  town  in  one  of  the  dialects  of  the  Huron- 
Iroquois  tongue,  was  applied,  in  the  first  half  of  the 
sixteenth  century,  to  a  district  in  the  neighbourhood 
of  the  Indian  town  of  Stadacona,  which  stood  on  the 
site  of  the  present  city  of  Quebec.  In  the  days  of 
French  occupation  the  name  was  more  generally 
used  than  New  France,  and  sometimes  extended  to 
the  country  now  comprised  in  the  provinces  of  On- 
tario and  Quebec,  or,  in  other  words,  to  the  whole 
region  from  the  Gulf  to  the  head  of  Lake  Superior. 
Finally,  it  was  adopted  as  the  most  appropriate 
designation  for  the  new  Dominion  that  made  a  step 
toward  national  life  in  1867. 

The  most  important  feature  of  this  historic  coun- 
try is  the  remarkable  natural  highway  which  has 
given  form  and  life  to  the  growing  nation  by  its  side 
— a  river  famous  in  the  history  of  exploration  and 
war — a  river  which  has  never-failing  reservoirs  in 
those  great  lakes  which  occupy  a  basin  larger  than 
Great  Britain — a  river  noted  for  its  long  stretch  of 
navigable  waters,  its  many  rapids,  and  its  unequalled 
Falls  of  Niagara,  around  all  of  which  man's  enter- 
prise and  skill  have  constructed  a  system  of  canals 
to  give  the  west  a  continuous  navigation  from  Lake 
Superior  to  the  ocean  for  over  two  thousand  miles. 


f 


8  THE   STORY  OF  CAXADA, 

The  Laurcntian  Hills — *'  the  nucleus  of  the  North 
American  continent  " — reach  from  inhospitable, 
rock-bound  Labrador  to  the  north  of  the  St.  Law- 
rence, extend  up  the  Ottawa  valley,  and  pass  event- 
ually to  the  northwest  of  Lakes  Huron  and  Superior, 
as  far  as  the  '*  Divide  "  between  the  St.  Lawrence 
valley  and  Hudson's  Hay,  but  display  their  boldest 
forms  on  the  north  shore  of  the  river  below  Quebec, 
where  the  names  of  Capes  Eternity  and  Trinity  have 
been  so  iptly  given  to  those  noble  precipices  which 
tower  above  the  gloomy  waters  of  the  Saguenay, 
and  have  a  history  which  "  dates  back  to  the  very 
dawn  of  geographical  time,  and  is  of  hoar  antiquity 
in  comparison  with  that  of  such  youthful  ranges  as 
the  Andes  and  the  Alps."  * 

From  Gaspe,  the  southeastern  promontory  at  the 
entrance  of  the  Gulf,  the  younger  rocks  of  the  Ap- 
palachian range,  constituting  the  breast-bone  of  the 
continent,  and  culminating  at  the  north  in  the 
White  Mountains,  describe  a  great  curve  southwest- 
erly to  the  valley  of  the  Hudson;  and  it  is  between 
the  ridge-like  elevations  of  this  range  and  the  older 
Laurentian  Hills  that  we  find  the  valley  of  the  St. 
Lawrence,  in  which  lie  the  provinces  of  Quebec  and 
Ontario. 

The  province  of  Quebec  is  famous  in  the  song  and 
story  of  Canada ;  indeed,  for  a  hundred  and  fifty 
years,  it  was  Canada  itself.  More  than  a  million  and  a 
quarter  of  people,  speaking  the  language  and  profess- 

*  Sir  J.  W.  Dawson,  Salient  Points  in  the  Science  of  the  Earth,  p. 
99. 


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lO  THE    SrOA'Y   O/'    CAXA/>,4, 

iiij;  the  religion  of  their  forefathers,  continue  to  oc- 
cupy tlie  country  which  extends  from  the  (iulf  to 
the  Ottawa,  and  have  made  themselves  a  power  in 
the  intellectual  and  political  life  of  Canada.  Every- 
where do  we  meet  names  that  recall  the  ancient 
regime — PVench  kings  and  princes,  statesmen,  sol- 
diers, sailors,  explorers,  and  adventurers,  compete 
in  the  national  nomenclature  with  priests  and  saints. 
This  country  possesses  large  tracts  of  arable  land, 
especially  in  the  country  stretching  from  the  St. 
Lawrence  to  Lake  Champlain,  and  watered  by  the 
Richelieu,  that  noted  highway  in  Canadian  history. 
Ever,  yet,  at  the  head-waters  of  its  many  rivers,  it 
hf*s  abundance  of  timber  to  attract  the  lumberman. 
The  province  of  Ontario  was  formerly  known  as 
Upper  or  Western  Canada,  but  at  the  time  of  the 
union  it  received  ns  present  name  because  it  largely 
lies  by  the  side  ot  tliC  lake  which  the  Hurons  and 
more  famous  Iroquois  called  *'  great."  It  extends 
from  the  river  of  the  Ottawas — the  first  route  of  the 
French  adventurers  to  the  western  lakes  as  far  as 
the  northwesterly  limj't  of  Lake  Superior,  and  is  the 
most  populous  and  prosperous  province  of  the  Do- 
minion on  account  of  its  wealth  of  agricultural  land, 
and  the  energy  of  its  population.  Its  history  is 
chiefly  interesting  for  the  illustrations  it  affords  of 
Englishmen's  successful  enterprise  in  a  new  country. 
The  origin  of  the  province  must  be  sought  in  the 
history  of  those  *'  United  Empire  Loyalists,"  who 
left  the  old  colonies  during  and  after  the  War  of 
Independence  and  founded  new  homes  by  the  St. 
Lawrence  and  great  lakes,  as  well  as  in  Nova  Scotia 


iWTRODUCriON, 


II 


and  New  Brunswick,  where,  as  in  the  West,  their 
descendants  have  had  much  influence  in  moulding 
institutions  and  deveh^ping  enterprise. 

In  the  days  when  Ontario  and  Quebec  were  a 
wilderness,  except  on  the  borders  of  the  St.  Law- 
rence from  Montreal  to  the  Quebec  district,  the  fur- 
trade  of  the  forests  that  stretched  away  beyond  the 
Laurcntides,  was  not  only  a  source  of  gain  to  the 
trading  companies  and  merchants  of  Acadia  and 
Canada,  but  was  the  sole  occupation  of  many  adven- 
turers whose  lives  were  full  of  elements  which  as- 
sume a  picturesque  aspect  at  this  distance  of  time. 
It  was  the  fur-trade  that  mainly  led  to  the  discovery 
of  the  great  West  and  to  the  opening  up  of  the 
Mississippi  valley.  But  always  by  the  side  of  the 
fur-trader  and  explorer  we  see  the  Recollet  or 
Jesuit  missionary  pressing  forward  with  the  cross  in 
his  hands  and  offering  his  life  that  the  savage  might 
learn  the  lessons  of  his  Faith. 

As  soon  as  the  Mississippi  was  discovered,  and 
found  navigable  to  the  Gulf  of  Mexico,  French  Can- 
adian statesmen  recognised  the  vantage-ground  that 
the  command  of  the  St.  Lawrence  valley  gave  them 
in  their  dreams  of  conquest.  Controlling  the  Riche- 
lieu, Lake  Champlain,  and  the  approaches  to  the 
Hudson  River,  as  well  as  the  western  lakes  and  rivers 
which  gave  easy  access  to  the  Mississippi,  France 
planned  her  bold  scheme  of  confining  the  old  Eng- 
lish colonies  between  the  Appalachian  range  of 
mountains  and  the  Atlantic  Ocean,  and  finally  domi- 
nating the  whole  continent. 

So  far  we  nave  been  passing  through  a  country 


li  THE   STORY  OF  CAXADA. 

where  the  lakes  and  rivers  of  a  great  natural  basin 
or  valley  carry  their  tribute  of  waters  to  the  Eastern 
Atlantic;  but  now,  when  we  leave  Lake  Superior 
and  the  country  known  as  Old  Canada,  we  find  our- 
selves on  the  northwestern  height  of  land  and  over- 
looking another  region  whose  great  rivers — notably 
the  Saskatchewan,  Nelson,  Mackenzie,  Peace,  Atha- 
basca, and  Yukon — drain  immense  areas  and  find 
their  way  after  many  circuitous  wanderings  to  Arctic 
seas. 

The  Central  region  of  Canada,  long  known  as 
Rupert's  Land  and  the  Northwestern  Territory, 
gradually  ascends  from  the  Winnipeg  system  of 
lakes,  lying  to  the  northwest  of  Lake  Superior,  as 
far  as  the  foothills  of  the  Rocky  Mountains,  and 
comprises  those  plains  and  prairies  which  have  been 
opened  up  to  civilisation  within  two  decades  of 
years,  and  offer  large  possibilities  of  power  and 
wealth  in  the  future  development  of  the  New  Do- 
minion. It  is  a  region  remarkable  for  its  long  rivers, 
in  places  shallow  and  rapid,  and  extremely  erratic  in 
their  courses  through  the  plains. 

Geologists  tell  us  that  at  some  remot  '  period  these 
great  central  plains,  now  so  rich  in  alluvial  deposits, 
composed  the  bed  of  a  sea  which  extended  from  the 
Arctic  region  and  the  ancient  Laurentian  belt  as  far 
as  the  Gulf  of  Mexico  and  made,  in  reality,  of  the 
continent,  an  Atlantis — that  mysterious  island  of  the 
Greeks.  The  history  of  the  northwest  is  the  history 
of  Indians  hunting  the  buffalo  and  fur-bearing  ani- 
mals in  a  country  for  many  years  under  the  control 
of  companies  holding   royal   charters  of  exclusive 


as 


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en 


14  THE   STORY  OF  CAXADA. 

trade  and  jealously  guarding  their  game  preserves 
from  tlic  encroachments  of  settlement  and  attendant 
civilisation.  French  Canadians  were  the  first  to 
travel  over  the  wide  expanse  of  plain  and  reach  the 
foothills  of  the  Rockies  a  century  and  a  half  ago, 
and  we  can  still  see  in  this  country  the  Metis  or 
half-breed  descendants  of  the  French  Canadian 
hunters  and  trappers  who  went  there  in  the  days 
when  trading  companies  were  supreme,  and  married 
Indian  women.  A  cordon  of  villages,  towns,  and 
farms  now  stretches  from  the  city  of  Winnipeg, 
built  on  the  site  of  the  old  headquarters  of  the 
Hudson's  Bay  Company,  as  far  as  the  Rocky  Moun- 
tains. Fields  of  golden  grain  brighten  the  prairies, 
where  the  tracks  of  herds  of  buffalo,  once  so  numer- 
ous but  now  extinct,  still  deeply  indent  the  surface 
of  the  rich  soil,  and  lead  to  some  creek  or  stream,  on 
whose  banks  grows  the  aspen  or  willow^  or  poplar 
of  a  relatively  treeless  land,  until  we  reach  the  more 
picturesque  and  well-wooded  and  undulating  country 
through  which  the  North  Saskatchewan  flows.  As 
we  travel  over  the  wide  expanse  of  plain,  only 
bounded  by  the  deep  blue  of  the  distant  horizon, 
we  become  almost  bewildered  by  the  beauty  and 
variety  of  the  flora,  which  flourish  on  the  rich  soil ; 
crocuses,  roses,  bluebells,  convolvuli,  anemones,  as- 
ters, sunflowers,  and  other  flowers  too  numerous 
to  mention,  follow  each  other  in  rapid  succession 
from  May  till  September,  and  mingle  with 

**  The  billowy  bays  of  grass  ever  rolling  in  shadow  and  sunshine." 

Ascending  the  foothills  that  rise  from  the  plains 


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(71 

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ai 


in 


l6  THE    STOKY  OF   CAXADA. 

to  the  Rocky  Mountains  wc  come  to  the  Western 
region,  known  as  British  Columbia,  comprising 
within  a  width  varying  from  four  to  six  hundred 
miles  at  the  widest  part,  several  ranges  of  great 
mountains  which  lie,  roughly  speaking,  parallel  to 
each  other,  and  give  sublimity  and  variety  to  the 
most  remarkable  scenery  of  North  America.  These 
mountains  are  an  extension  of  the  Cordilleran 
range,  which  forms  the  backbone  of  the  Pacific 
coast,  and  in  Mexico  rises  to  great  volcanic  ridges, 
of  which  the  loftiest  are  Popocatepetl  and  Iztac- 
cihuatl.  Plateaus  and  valleys  of  rich,  gravelly 
soil  lie  within  these  stately  ranges. 

Here  we  find  the  highest  mountains  of  Canada, 
some  varying  from  ten  to  fifteen  thousand  feet,  and 
assuming  a  grandeur  which  we  never  see  in  the  far 
more  ancient  Laurentides,  which,  in  the  course  of 
ages,  have  been  ground  down  by  the  forces  of  nature 
to  their  relatively  diminutive  size.  Within  the  re- 
cesses of  these  stupendous  ranges  there  are  rich 
stores  of  gold  and  silver,  while  coal  exists  most 
abundantly  on  Vancouver. 

The  Fraser,  Columbia,  and  other  rivers  of  this 
region  run  with  great  swiftness  among  the  cafions 
and  gorges  of  the  mountains,  and  find  their  way  at 
last  to  the  Pacific.  In  the  Rockies,  properly  so 
called,  we  see  stupendous  masses  of  bare,  rugged 
rock,  crowned  with  snow  and  ice,  and  assuming  all 
the  grand  and  curious  forms  which  nature  loves  to 
take  in  her  most  striking  upheavals.  Never  can  one 
forget  the  picturesque  beauty  and  impressive  grand- 
eur of  the  Selkirk  range,  and  the  ride  by  the  side  of 


INTRODUCTION, 


17 


the  broad,  rapid  F^aser,  over  trestle-work,  around 
curves,  and  through  tunnels,  with  the  forest-clad 
mountains  ever  rising  as  far  as  the  eye  can  reach, 
with  glimpses  of  precipices  and  cafions,  of  cataracts 
and  cascades  that  tumble  down  from  the  glaciers  or 
snow-clad  peaks,  and  resemble  so  many  drifts  of  snow 
amid  the  green  foliage  that  grows  on  the  lowest 
slopes.  The  Fraser  River  valley,  writes  an  observer, 
**  is  one  so  singularly  formed,  that  it  v/ould  seem  that 
some  superhuman  sword  had  at  a  single  stroke  cut 
through  a  labyrinth  of  mountains  for  three  hundred 
miles,  down  deep  into  the  bowels  of  the  land."  * 
Further  along  the  Fraser  the  Cascade  Mountains  lift 
their  rugged  heads,  and  the  river  "  flows  at  the  bot- 
tom of  a  vast  tangle  cut  by  nature  through  the  heart 
of  the  mountains."  The  glaciers  fully  equal  in 
magnitude  and  grandeur  those  of  Switzerland.  On 
the  coast  and  in  the  rich  valleys  stand  the  giant 
pines  and  cedars,  compared  with  which  the  trees  of 
the  Eastern  division  seem  mere  saplings.  The  coast 
is  very  mountainous  and  broken  into  innumerable 
inlets  and  islands,  all  of  them  heavily  timbered  to 
the  water's  edge.  The  history  of  this  region  offers 
little  of  picturesque  interest  except  what  may  be 
found  in  the  adventures  of  daring  sailors  of  various 
nationalities  on  the  Pacific  coast,  or  in  the  story  of 
the  descent  of  the  Fraser  by  the  Scotch  fur-trader 
who  first  followed  it  to  the  sea,  and  gave  it  the  name 
which  it  still  justly  bears. 

The  history  of  the  Western  and  Central  regions  of 
the  Dominion  is  given  briefly  towards  the  end  of  this 

*  H.  H.  Bancroft,  British  Columbia^  p.  38. 


i8 


THE   STORY  OF  CANADA, 


narrative,  as  it  forms  a  national  sequence  or  supple- 
ment to  that  of  the  Eastern  divisions,  Acadia  and 
Canada,  where  France  first  established  her  dominion, 
and  the  foundations  were  laid  for  the  present  Cana- 
dian confederation.  It  is  the  story  of  the  great 
Eastern  country  that  I  must  now  tell  in  the 
following  pages. 


II. 

THE   DAWN   OF   DISCOVERY   IN  CANADA. 
(1497— 1525.) 

On  one  of  the  noble  avenues  of  the  modern  part 
of  the  city  of  Boston,  so  famous  in  the  political  and 
intellectual  life  of  America,  stands  a  monument  of 
bronze  which  some  Scandinavian  and  historical  en- 
thusiasts have  raised  to  the  memory  of  Leif,  son  of 
Eric  the  Red,  who,  in  the  first  year  of  the  eleventh 
century,  sailed  from  Greenland  where  his  father,  an 
Icelandic  jarl  or  earl,  had  founded  a  settlement. 
This  statue  represents  the  sturdy,  well-proportioned 
figure  of  a  Norse  sailor  just  discovering  the  new 
lands  with  which  the  Sagas  or  poetic  chronicles  of 
the  North  connect  his  name.  At  the  foot  of  the 
pedestal  the  artist  has  placed  the  dragon's  head 
which  always  stood  on  the  prow  of  the  Norsemen's 
ships,  and  pictures  of  which  can  still  be  seen  on  the 
famous  Norman  tapestry  at  Bayeux. 

The  Icelandic  Sagas  possess  a  basis  of  historical 
truth,  and  there  is  reason  to  believe  that  Leif  Eric- 
son  discovered  three  countries.  The  first  land  he 
made  after  leaving  Greenland  he  named  Helluland 
on  account  of  its  slaty  rocks.     Then  he  came  to  a 

19 


20  THE   STORY  OF  CAXADA, 

flat  country  with  white  beaches  of  sand,  which  he 
called  Markland  because  it  was  so  well  wooded. 
After  a  sail  of  some  days  the  Northmen  arrived  on  a 
coast  where  they  found  vines  laden  with  grapes,  and 
very  appropriately  named  Vinland.  The  exact  situ- 
ation of  Vinland  and  the  other  countries  visited  by 
Leif  Ericson  and  other  Norsemen,  who  followed  in 
later  voyages  and  are  believed  to  have  founded  set- 
tlements in  the  land  of  vines,  has  been  always  a  sub- 
ject of  perplexity,  since  we  have  only  the  vague  Sagas 
to  guide  us.  It  may  be  fairly  assumed,  however, 
that  the  rocky  land  was  the  coast  of  Labrador  ;  the 
low-lying  forest-clad  shores  which  Ericson  called 
Markland  was  possibly  the  southeastern  part  of 
Cape  Breton  or  the  southern  coast  of  Nova  Scotia  ; 
Vinland  was  very  likely  somewhere  in  New  England. 
Be  that  as  it  may,  the  world  gained  nothing  from 
these  misty  discoveries — if,  indeed,  we  may  so  call 
the  results  of  the  voyages  of  ten  centuries  ago.  No 
such  memorials  of  the  Icelandic  pioneers  have  yet 
been  found  in  America  as  they  have  left  behind  them 
in  Greenland.  The  old  ivy-covered  round  tower  at 
Newport  in  Rhode  Island  is  no  longer  claimed  as  a 
relic  of  the  Norse  settlers  of  Vinland,  since  it  has 
been  proved  beyond  doubt  to  be  nothing  more  than 
a  very  substantial  stone  windmill  of  quite  recent 
times,  while  the  writing  on  the  once  equally  famous 
rock,  found  last  century  at  Dighton,  by  the  side  of 
a  New  England  river,  is  now  generally  admitted  to 
be  nothing  more  than  a  memorial  of  one  of  the 
Indian  tribes  who  have  inhabited  the  country  since 
the  voyages  of  the  Norsemen, 


THE  DAWN  OF  DISCOVERY  IN  CANADA.      21 


Leaving  this  domain  oT  legend,  we  come  to  the 
last  years  of  the  fifteenth  century,  when  Columbus 
landed  on  the  islands  now  often  known  as  the 
Antilles — a  memorial  of  that  mysterious  Antillia.  or 
Isle  of  the  Seven  Cities,  which  was  long  supposed  to 
exist  in  the  mid-Atlantic,  and  found  a  place  in  all 
the  maps  before,  and  even  some  time  after,  the 
voyages  of  the  illustrious  Genoese.  A  part  of  the 
veil  was  at  last  lifted  from  that  mysterious  western 
ocean — that  Sea  of  Darkness,  which  had  perplexed 
philosophers,  geographers,  and  sailors,  from  the  days 
of  Aristotle,  Plato,  Strabo,  and  Ptolemy.  As  in  the 
case  of  Scandinavia,  several  countries  have  en- 
deavoured to  establish  a  claim  for  the  priority  of  dis- 
covery in  America.  Some  sailors  of  that  Biscayan 
coast,  which  has  given  so  many  bold  pilots  and 
mariners  to  the  world  of  adventure  and  exploration 
— that  Basque  country  to  which  belonged  Juan  de  la 
Cosa,  the  pilot  who  accompanied  Columbus  in  his 
voyages — may  have  found  their  way  to  the  North 
Atlantic  coast  in  search  of  cod  or  whales  at  a  very 
early  time;  and  it  is  certainly  an  argument  for  such 
a  claim  that  John  Cabot  is  said  in  1497  to  have  heard 
the  Indians  of  northeastern  America  speak  of  Bacca- 
laos,  or  Basque  for  cod — a  name  afterwards  applied 
for  a  centurv  and  lonfjer  to  the  islands  and  countries 
around  the  Gulf.  It  is  certainly  not  improbable  that 
the  Normans,  Bretons,  or  Basques,  whose  lives  from 
times  immemorial  have  been  passed  on  the  sea, 
should  have  been  driven  by  the  winds  or  by  some 
accident  to  the  shores  of  Newfoundland  or  Labra- 
dor or  even  Cape  Breton,  but  such  theories  are  not 


22  THE  STORY  OF  CANADA. 

based  upon  sufficiently  authentic  data  to  brin^  them 
under  the  consideration  of  the  serious  historian. 

It  is  unfortunate  that  the  records  of  history  should 
be  sv  wanting  in  definite  and  accurate  details,  when 
we  come  to  the  voyages  of  John  Cabot,  a  great  nav- 
igator, who  was  probably  a  Genoese  by  birth  and  a 
Venetian  by  citizenship.  Five  years  after  the  first 
discovery  by  Columbus,  John  Cabot  sailed  to  un- 
known seas  and  lands  in  the  Northwest  in  the  ship 
Mattliczv  of  Bristol,  with  full  authority  from  the  King 
of  England,  Henry  the  Seventh,  to  take  possession 
in  his  name  of  all  countries  he  might  discover. 
On  his  return  from  a  successful  voyage,  during 
which  he  certainly  landed  on  the  coast  of  British 
North  America,  and  first  discovered  the  continent  of 
North  America,  he  became  the  hero  of  the  hour  and 
received  from  Henry,  a  very  economical  sovereign, 
a  largess  of  ten  pounds  as  a  reward  to  **hym  that 
founde  the  new  ile."  In  the  following  year  both  he 
and  his  son  Sebastian,  then  a  very  young  man,  who 
probably  also  accompanied  his  father  in  the  voyage 
of  1497,  sailed  again  for  the  ne^/  lands  which  were 
believed  to  be  somewhere  on  the  road  to  Cipango 
and  the  countries  of  gold  and  spice  and  silk.  We 
have  no  exact  record  of  this  voyage,  and  do  not 
even  know  whether  John  Cabot  himself  returned 
alive;  for,  from  the  day  of  his  sailing  in  1498,  he  dis- 
appears from  the  scene  and  his  son  Sebastian  not 
only  becomes  henceforth  a  prominent  figure  in  the 
maritime  history  of  the  period,  but  has  been  given 
by  his  admirers  even  the  place  which  his  father  alone 
fairly  won  as  the  leader  in  the  two  voyages  on  which 


THE  DAVVX  OF  DISCOl'ERY  IX  CANADA.      23 

England  has  based  her  claim  of  priority  of  discovery 
on  the  Atlantic  coast  of  North  America.  The 
weight  of  authority  so  far  points  to  a  headland  of 
Cape  Breton  as  the  prima  ticrra  vis/n,  or  the  landfall 
which  John  Cabot  probably  made  on  a  June  day, 
the  four  hundredth  anniversary  of  which  arrives  in 
1897,  though  the  claims  of  a  point  on  the  wild  Lab- 
rador coast  and  of  Bonavista,  an  eastern  headhrid 
of  Newfoundland,  have  also  some  earnest  advocates. 
It  is,  however,  generally  admitted  that  the  Cabots, 
in  the  second  voyage,  sailed  past  the  shores  of  Nova 
Scotia  and  of  the  United  States  as  far  south  as 
Spanish  Florida.  History  here,  at  all  events,  has 
tangible,  and  in  some  respects  irrefutable,  evidence 
on  which  to  dwell,  since  we  have  before  us  a  cele- 
brated map,  which  has  come  down  from  the  first 
year  of  the  sixteenth  century,  and  is  known  beyond 
doubt  to  have  been  drawn  with  all  the  authority  that 
is  due  to  so  famous  a  navigator  as  Juan  de  la  Cosa, 
the  Basque  pilot.  On  this  map  we  see  delineated 
for  the  first  time  the  coast  apparently  of  a  conti- 
nental region  extending  from  the  peninsula  of 
Florida  as  far  as  the  present  Gulf  of  St.  Lawrence, 
which  is  described  in  Spanish  as  7fiar  desciibicrta  par 
los  Ingleses  (sea  discovered  by  the  English),  on  one 
headland  of  which  there  is  a  Cavo  de  Ynglaterra^  or 
English  Cape.  Whether  this  sea  is  the  Gulf  of  St. 
Lawrence  and  the  headland  is  Cape  Race,  the  south- 
eastern extremity  of  Newfoundland,  or  the  equally 
well-known  point  which  the  Bretons  named  on  the 
southeastern  coast  of  Cape  Breton,  are  among  the 
questions  which  enter  into  the  domain  of  specula- 


24  THE   STORY  OF  CANADA. 

tion  and  imagination.  Juan  de  la  Cosa,  however,  is 
conclusive  evidence  in  favour  of  the  English  claim  to 
the  fi^'st  discovery  of  Northern  countries,  whose 
greatness  and  prosperity  have  already  exceeded  the 
conceptions  which  the  Spanish  conquerors  formed 
when  they  won  possession  of  those  rich  Southern 
lands  which  so  long  acknowledged  the  dominion  of 
Spain. 

But  Cabot's  voyages  led  to  no  immediate  practical 
results.  The  Bristol  ships  brought  back  no  rich 
cargoes  of  gold  or  silver  or  spices,  to  tell  England 
that  she  had  won  a  passage  to  the  Indies  and  Cathay. 
The  idea,  however,  that  a  short  passage  would  be 
discovered  to  those  rich  regions  was  to  linger  for 
nearly  two  centuries  in  the  minds  of  maritime  ad- 
venturers and  geographers. 

If  we  study  the  names  of  the  headlands,  bays, 
and  other  natural  features  of  the  islands  and 
countries  which  inclose  the  Gulf  of  St.  Lawrence 
we  find  many  memorials  of  the  early  Portuguese  and 
French  voyagers.  In  the  beginning  of  the  sixteenth 
century  Caspar  Cortereal  made  several  voyages  to 
the  northeastern  shores  of  Newfoundland  and  Lab- 
rador, and  brought  back  with  him  a  number  of 
natives  whose  sturdy  frames  gave  European  specta- 
tors the  idea  that  they  v/ould  make  good  labourers; 
and  it  was  this  erroneous  conception,  it  is  generally 
thought,  gave  its  present  name  to  the  rocky,  forbid- 
ding region  which  the  Norse  voyagers  had  probably 
called  Helluland  five  hundred  years  before.  Both 
Caspar  Cortereal  and  his  brother  Miguel  disappeared 
from  history  somewhere  in  the  waters  of  Hudson  s 


^~-~<:.? 


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IJJ 


SKETCH  OF  JIAN  DK  LA  COSA'S   MAP,   A.D.   '5OO. 


25 


26  THE  STORY  OF  CAXADA, 

Bay  or  Labrador ;  but  they  were  followed  by  other 
adventurous  sailors  who  ha\  e  left  mementos  of  their 
nationality  on  such  places  as  Cape  Raso  (Race),  Boa 
Ventura  (Bonaventure),  Conception,  Tangier,  Porto 
Novo,  Carbonear  (Carboneiro),  all  of  which  and  other 
names  appear  on  the  earliest  maps  of  the  north- 
eastern waters  of  North  America. 

Some  enterprising  sailors  of  Brittany  first  gave  a 
name  to  that  Cape  which  lies  to  the  northeast  of  the 
historic  port  of  Louisbourg.  These  hardy  sailors  were 
certainly  on  the  coast  of  the  island  as  early  as  1504, 
and  Cape  Breton  is  consequently  the  earliest  French 
name  on  record  in  America.  Some  claim  is  made 
tor  the  Basques — that  primeval  people,  whose  origin 
is  lost  in  the  mists  of  tradition — because  there  is  a 
Cape  Breton  on  the  Biscayan  coast  of  France,  but 
the  evidence  in  support  of  the  Bretons'  claim  is  by 
far  the  strongest.  For  very  many  years  the  name  of 
Bretons'  land  was  attached  on  maps  to  a  continental 
region,  which  included  the  present  Nova  Scotia,  and 
it  was  well  into  the  middle  of  the  sixteenth  century, 
after  the  voyages  of  Jacques  Cartier  and  Jehan 
Alfonce,  before  we  find  the  island  itself  make  its 
appearance  in  its  proper  place  and  form. 

It  was  a  native  of  the  beautiful  city  of  Florence,  in 
the  days  of  Francis  the  First,  who  gave  to  France 
some  claim  to  territory  in  North  America.  Giovanni 
da  Verrazano,  a  well-known  corsair,  in  1524,  received 
a  commission  from  that  brilliant  and  dissipated  king, 
Francis  the  First,  who  had  become  jealous  of  the 
enormous  pretensions  of  Spain  and  Portugal  in  the 
new  world,  and  had  on  one  occasion  sent  word  to 


THE  DAWN  OF  DISCOVERY  hV  CANADA,      2J 

his  great  rival,  Charles  the  Fifth,  that  he  was  not 
aware  that  "  our  first  father  Adam  had  made  the 
Spanish  and  Portuguese  kings  his  sole  heirs  to  the 
earth."  Verrazano's  voyage  is  supposed  on  good 
authority  to  have  embraced  the  whole  North  Ameri- 
can coast  from  Cape  Fear  in  North  Carolina  as  far 
as  the  island  of  Cape  Breton.  About  the  same  time 
Spain  sent  an  expedition  to  the  northeastern  coasts 
of  America  under  the  direction  of  Estevan  Gomez, 
a  Portuguese  pilot,  and  it  is  probable  that  he  also 
coasted  from  Florida  to  Cape  Breton.  Much  disap- 
pointment was  felt  th.it  neither  Verrazano  nor  Gomez 
had  found  a  passage  through  the  straits  which  were 
then,  and  for  a  long  time  afterwards,  supposed  to  lie 
somewhere  in  the  northern  regions  of  America  and 
to  lead  to  China  and  India.  Francis  was  not  able  to 
send  Verrazano  on  another  voyage,  to  take  formal 
possession  of  the  new  lands,  as  he  was  engaged  in 
that  conflict  with  Charles  which  led  to  his  defeat  at 
the  battle  of  Pavia  and  his  being  made  subsequently 
a  prisoner.  Spain  appears  to  have  attached  no  im- 
portance to  the  discovery  by  Gomez,  since  it  did  not 
promise  mines  of  gold  and  silver,  and  happily  for  the 
cause  of  civilisation  and  progress,  she  continued  to 
confine  herself  to  the  countries  of  the  South,  though 
her  fishermen  annually  ventured,  in  common  with 
those  of  other  nations,  to  the  banks  of  Newfound- 
land. However,  from  the  time  of  Verrazano  we  find 
on  the  old  maps  the  names  of  Francisca  and  Nova 
Gallia  as  a  recognition  of  the  claim  of  France  to 
important  discoveries  in  North  America.  It  is  also 
from  the  Florentine's  voyage  that  we  may  date  the 


28  THE   STORY  OF  CANADA, 

discovery  of  tliat  mysterious  region  called  Norum- 
bega,  where  the  fancy  of  sailors  and  adventurers 
eventually  placed  a  noble  city  whose  houses  were 
raised  on  pillars  of  crystal  and  silver,  and  decorated 
with  precious  stones.  These  travellers'  tales  and 
sailors'  yarns  probably  originated  in  the  current  be- 
lief that  somewhere  in  those  new  lands,  just  discov- 
ered, there  would  be  found  an  El  Dorado.  The 
same  brilliant  illusion  that  led  Ralegh  to  the  South 
made  credulous  mariners  believe  in  a  Norumbec^a  in 
the  forests  of  Acadia.  The  name  clung  for  many 
years  to  a  country  embraced  within  the  present  limits 
of  New  England,  and  sometimes  included  Nova 
Scotia.  Its  rich  capital  was  believed  to  exist  some- 
where on  the  beautiful  Penobscot  River,  in  the  present 
State  of  Maine.  A  memorial  of  the  same  name  still 
lingers  in  the  little  harbours  of  Norumbec,  or  Lor- 
ambeque,  or  Loran,  on  the  southeastern  coast  of 
Cape  Breton.  Enthusiastic  advocates  of  the  Norse 
discovery  and  settlement  have  confidently  seen  in 
Norumbega,  the  Indian  utterance  of  Norbega,  the 
ancient  form  of  Norway  to  which  Vinland  was  sub- 
ject, and  this  belief  has  been  even  emphasised  on  a 
stone  pillar  which  stands  on  some  ruins  unearthed 
close  to  the  Charles  River  in  Massachusetts.  Sihon 
i  veroe  ben  trovato.  All  this  serves  to  amuse,  though 
it  cannot  convince,  the  critical  student  of  those 
shadowy  times.  With  the  progress  of  discovery 
the  city  of  Norumbega  was  found  as  baseless  as 
the  fables  of  the  golden  city  on  the  banks  of  the 
Orinoco,  and  of  the  fountain  of  youth  among  the 
forests  and  everglades  of  Florida. 


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III. 


A    BRETON    SAILOR    DISCOVERS    CANADA    AND    ITS 

GREAT    RIVER. 

(1534-36.) 

In  the  fourth  decade  of  the  sixteenth  century  we 
find  ourselves  in  the  domain  of  precise  history.  The 
narratives  of  the  voyages  of  Jacques  Cartier  of  St. 
Malo,  that  famous  port  of  Brittany  which  has  given 
so  many  sailors  to  the  world,  are  on  the  whole  suffi- 
ciently definite,  even  at  this  distance  of  three  centu- 
ries and  a  half,  to  enable  us  to  follow  his  routes,  and 
recognise  the  greater  number  of  the  places  in  the 
gulf  and  river  which  he  revealed  to  the  old  world. 
The  same  enterprising  king  who  had  sent  Ver- 
razano  to  the  west  in  1524,  commissioned  the  Breton 
sailor  to  find  a  short  passage  to  Cathay  and  give  a 
new  dominion  to  France. 

At  the  time  of  the  departure  of  Cartier  in  1534  for 
the  "  new-found  isle  "  of  Cabot,  the  w^orld  had  made 
considerable  advances  in  geographical  knowledge. 
South  America  was  now  ascertained  to  be  a  separate 
continent,  and  the  great  Portuguese   Magellan  had 

29 


30  THE   STOKY  OF  CANADA. 

passed  through  the  straits,  which  ever  since  have 
borne  his  name,  and  found  his  way  across  the  Pacific 
to  the  spice  islands  of  Asia.  As  respects  North 
America  beyond  the  Gulf  of  Mexico  and  the  coun- 
try to  the  North,  dense  ignorance  still  prevailed, 
and  though  a  coast  line  had  been  followed  from 
Florida  to  Cape  Breton  by  Cabot,  Gomez,  and  Ver- 
razano,  it  was  believed  either  to  belong  to  a  part  of 
Asia  or  to  be  a  mere  prolongation  of  Greenland.  If 
one  belief  prevailed  more  than  another  it  w^as  in  the 
existence  of  a  great  sea,  called  on  the  maps  *'  the  sea 
of  Verrazano,"  in  what  is  now  the  upper  basin  of  the 
Mississippi  and  the  Great  Lakes  of  the  west,  and 
which  was  only  separated  from  the  Atlantic  by  a 
narrow  strip  of  land.  Now  that  it  was  clear  that  no 
short  passage  to  India  and  China  could  be  found 
through  the  Gulf  of  Mexico,  and  that  South  Amer- 
ica was  a  continental  region,  the  attention  of  hope- 
ful geographers  and  of  enterprising  sailors  and 
adventurers  was  directed  to  the  north,  especially  as 
Spain  was  relatively  indifferent  to  enterprise  in  that 
region.  No  doubt  the  French  King  thought  that 
Cartier  would  find  his  way  to  the  sea  of  Verrazano, 
beyond  which  were  probably  the  lands  visited  by 
Marco  Polo,  that  enterprising  merchant  of  Venice, 
whose  stories  of  adventure  in  Ii^dia  and  China  read 
like  stories  of  the  Arabian  Nights. 

Jacques  Cartier  made  three  v^oyages  to  the  conti- 
nent of  America  between  1534  and  1542,  and  proba- 
bly another  in  1543.  The  first  voyage,  which  took 
place  in  1534  and  lasted  from  April  until  September, 
was  confined  to  the  Gulf  of  St.  Lawrence,  which  he 


Jacques   Cartier. 


ur 


31 


32  THE   STORY  OF  CANADA, 

explored  with  some  thoroughness  after  passing 
through  the  strait  of  Belle  Isle,  then  called  the  Gulf 
of  Castles  (Chasteaux).  The  coast  of  Labrador  he 
described  with  perfect  accuracy  as  extremely  forbid- 
ding, covered  with  rocks  and  moss  and  "  as  very 
likely  the  land  given  by  God  to  Cain."  In  one  of 
the  harbours  of  the  Labrador  coast  he  found  a  fish- 
ing vessel  from  La  Rochelle,  the  famous  Protestant 
town  of  France,  on  its  way  to  the  port  of  Brest,  then 
and  for  some  time  after  a  place  of  call  for  the  fisher- 
men who  were  already  thronging  the  Gulf,  where 
walrus,  whales,  and  cod  were  so  abundant.  A  good 
deal  of  time  has  been  expended  by  historical  writers 
on  the  itinerary  of  this  voyage,  the  record  of  which 
is  somewhat  puzzling  at  times  when  we  come  to  fix 
Cartier's  names  of  places  on  a  modern  map.  Con- 
fining ourselves  to  those  localities  of  which  there  is 
no  doubt,  we  know  he  visited  and  named  the  isle  of 
Brion  in  honour  of  Admiral  Philip  de  Chabot,  Seig- 
neur de  Brion,  who  was  a  friend  and  companion  of 
Francis,  and  had  received  from  him  authority  to 
send  out  Cartier's  expedition.  The  Breton  saw  the 
great  sand-dunes,  and  red  cliffs  of  the  Magdalens 
rising  from  the  sea  like  so  many  cones.  It  was  one 
of  these  islands  he  probably  called  Alezay,  though 
there  are  writers  who  recognise  in  his  description  a 
headland  of  Prince  Edward  Island,  but  it  is  not  cer- 
tain that  he  visited  or  named  any  of  the  bays  or 
lagoons  of  that  island  which  lies  so  snugly  ensconced 
in  the  Gulf.  We  recognise  the  bay  of  Miramichi 
(St.  Lunaire)  and  the  still  more  beautiful  scenery  of 
the  much  larger  bay  of  Chaleur  (Heat)  which  he  so 


A    BRETON  SAILOR  DISCOVERS  CANADA.       33 

named  because  he  entered  it  on  a  very  hot  July 
day.  There  he  had  pleasant  interviews  with  the 
natives,  who  danced  and  gave  other  demonstrations 
of  joy  when  they  received  some  presents  in  exchange 
for  the  food  they  brought  to  the  strangers.  These 
people  were  probably  either  Micmacs  or  Etchcmins, 
one  of  the  branches  of  the  Algonquin  nation  who 
inhabited  a  large  portion  of  the  Northern  continent. 
Cartier  was  enchanted  with  the  natural  beauties  of 
"  as  fine  a  country  as  one  would  wish  to  see  and  live 
in,  level  and  smooth,  warmer  than  Spain,  where 
there  is  abundance  of  wheat,  which  has  an  ear  like 
that  of  rye,  and  again  like  oats,  peas  growing  as 
thickly  and  as  large  as  if  they  had  been  cultivated, 
red  and  white  barberries,  strawberries,  red  and 
white  roses,  and  other  flowers  of  a  delightful 
and  sweet  perfume,  meadows  of  rich  grasses,  and 
rivers  full  of  salmon  " — a  perfectly  true  descrip- 
tion of  the  beautiful  country  watered  by  the  Resti- 
gouche  and  Metapedia  rivers.  Cartier  also  visited 
the  picturesque  bay  of  Gaspe,  where  the  scenery  is 
grand  but  the  trees  smaller  and  the  land  less  fertile 
than  in  the  neighbourhood  of  Chaleur  and  its  rivers. 
On  a  point  at  the  entrance  of  the  harbour  of  Gasp^ 
— an  Indian  name  having  probably  reference  to  a 
split  rock,  which  has  long  been  a  curiosity  of  the 
coast — Cartier  raised  a  cross,  thirty  feet  in  height,  on 
the  middle  of  which  there  was  a  shield  or  escutcheon 
with  three  fleurs-de-lis,  and  the  inscription,  Vwe  le 
Roy  dc  France.  Cartier  then  returned  to  France  by 
way  of  the  strait  of  Belle  Isle,  without  having  seen 
the  great  river  to  whose  mouth  he  had  been  so  close 


34  THE   STORY  OF  CANADA, 

when  he  stood  on  tlie  hills  of  Gaspe  or  passed  arouiul 
the  shores  of  desolate  Aiiticosti. 

Cartier  brought  back  with  him  two  sons  of  the 
Indian  chief  of  a  tribe  he  saw  at  (laspe,  who  seem 
to  liave  belonged  to  the  I  luroii-Iroquois  nation  he 
met  at  Stadacona,  now  Quebec,  when  he  made  the 
second  voyage  which  I  have  to  describe.  The  ac- 
counts he  gave  of  the  country  on  the  Gulf  appear 
to  have  been  sufficiently  encouraging  to  keep  up  the 
interest  of  the  King  and  the  Admiral  of  France  in 
the  scheme  of  discovery  which  they  had  planned. 
In  this  second  voyage  of  1535-36,  the  most  memor- 
able of  all  he  made  to  American  waters,  he  had  the 
assistance  of  a  little  fleet  of  three  vessels,  the  Grande 
Hcnniue,  the  Petite  Herviine,  and  the  Enter illon,  of 
which  the  first  had  a  burden  of  one  hundred  and 
twenty  tons — quite  a  large  ship  compared  with  the 
two  little  vessels  of  sixty  tons  each  that  were  given 
him  for  his  first  venture.  This  fleet,  which  gave 
Canada  to  France  for  two  centuries  and  a  quarter, 
reached  Newfoundland  during  the  early  part  of  July, 
passed  through  the  strait  of  Belle  Isle,  and  on  the 
loth  of  August,  came  to  a  little  bay  or  harbour  on 
the  northern  shore  of  the  present  province  of  Que- 
bec, but  then  known  as  Labrador,  to  which  he  gave 
the  name  of  St.  Laurent,  in  honour  of  the  saint 
whose  festival  happened  to  fall  on  the  day  of  his 
arrival.  This  bay  is  now  generally  believed  to  be 
the  port  of  Sainte  Genevieve,  and  the  name  which 
Cartier  gave  it  was  gradually  transferred  in  the  course 
of  a  century  to  the  whole  gulf  as  well  as  to  the  river 
itself  which  the  Breton  sailor  was  the  first  to  place 


A    FSA'ETOX  S/1//.OA'  DISCOVERS  CAXADA.       35 

definitely  on  the  maps  of  those  days  of  scanty 
geo<^raphical  knowledge.  Cartier  led  his  vessels 
through  the  passage  between  the  northern  shores  of 
Canada  and  the  island  of  Anticosti,  which  he  called 
Assomption,  although  it  has  long  since  resumed  its 
old  name,  which  has  been  gradually  changed  from 
the  original  Natiscotic  to  Naticousti,  and  finally  to 
Anticosti.  When  the  adventurers  came  near  the 
neighbourhood  of  Trinity  River  on  the  north  side  of 
the  Gulf,  the  two  Gaspe  Indians  who  were  on  board 
Cartier's  vessel,  the  Grande  Herininc,  told  them  that 
they  were  now  at  the  entrance  of  the  kingdom  of 
Saguenay  where  red  copper  was  to  be  found,  and 
that  away  beyond  flow^ed  the  great  river  of  Iloche- 
laga  and  Canada.  This  Saguenay  kingdom  extended 
on  the  north  side  of  the  river  as  far  as  the  neighbour- 
hood of  the  present  well-known  Isle  aux  Coudres; 
then  came  the  kingdom  of  Canada,  stretching  as  far 
as  the  island  of  Montreal,  where  the  King  of  Hoche- 
laga  exercised  dominion  over  a  number  of  tribes  in 
the  adjacent  country. 

Cartier  passed  the  gloomy  portals  of  the  Saguenay, 
and  stopped  for  a  day  or  two  at  Isle  aux  Coudres 
(Coudrieres)  over  fifty  miles  below  Quebec,  where 
mass  was  celebrated  for  the  first  time  on  the  river  of 
Canada,  and  which  he  named  on  account  of  the 
hazel-nuts  he  found  '"  as  large  and  better  tasting 
than  those  of  France,  though  a  little  harder."  Car- 
tier  then  followed  the  north  shore,  with  its  lofty, 
well-wooded  mountains  stretching  away  to  the  north- 
ward, and  came  at  last  to  an  anchorage  not  far  from 
Stadacona,  somewhere  between  the  present  Isle  of 


36  THE   STORY  OJ'    CANADA. 

Orleans  and  the  mainland.  Here  he  had  an  inter- 
view with  the  natives,  who  showed  every  confidence 
in  the  strangers  when  they  found  that  the  two 
Gaspe  Iiulians,  Tai^noagny  and  Domagaya,  were 
their  companions.  As  soon  as  they  were  satisfied  of 
this  fact — and  here  we  have  a  proof  that  these  two 
Indians  must  have  belonged  to  the  same  nation  — 
**  they  showed  their  joy,  danced,  and  performed 
various  antics."  Subsequently  the  lord  of  Donna- 
cona,  whose  Indian  title  was  Agouahana,  came  with 
twelve  canoes  and  *'  made  a  speech  according  to  the 
fashion,  contorting  the  body  and  limbs  in  a  remark- 
able way — a  ceremony  of  joy  and  welcome."  After 
looking  about  for  a  safe  harbour,  Cartier  chose  the 
mouth  of  the  present  St.  Charles  River,  which  he 
named  the  River  of  the  Holy  Cross  (Sainte  Croix) 
in  honour  of  the  dav  when  he  arrived.  The  fleet 
was  anchored  not  far  from  the  Indian  village  of 
Stadacona,  and  soon  after  its  arrival  one  of  the 
chiefs  received  the  Frenchmen  with  a  speech  of  wel- 
come, "  while  the  women  danced  and  sang  without 
ceasing,  standing  in  the  water  up  to  their  knees." 

Moored  in  a  safe  haven,  the  French  had  abundant 
opportunity  to  make  themselves  acquainted  with  the 
surrounding  country  and  its  people.  They  visited 
the  island  close  by,  and  were  delighted  with  *'  its 
beautiful  trees,  the  same  as  in  France,"  and  with 
the  great  quantities  of  vines  "  such  as  we  had  never 
before  seen."  Cartier  called  this  attractive  spot  the 
Island  of  Bacchus,  but  changed  the  name  subse- 
quently to  the  Isle  of  Orleans,  in  honour  of  one  of 
the   royal   sons    of    France.      Cartier   was   equally 


A   BRETON  SAILOR  DISCOVERS  CANADA.       37 

charmed  with  the  varied  scenery  and  the  fruitful  soil 
of  the  country  around  Stadacona. 

it  was  now  the  middle  of  September,  and  Cartier 
determined,  since  his  men  had  fully  recovered  from 
the  fatigues  of  the  voyage,  to  proceed  up  the  river 
as  far  as  Hochelaga,  of  which  he  was  constantly 
hearing  accounts  from  the  Indians.  When  they 
heard  of  this  intention,  Donnacona  and  other  chiefs 
used  their  best  efforts  to  dissuade  him  by  inventing 
stories  of  the  dangers  of  the  navigation.  The  two 
Gaspe  Indians  lent  themselves  to  the  plans  of  the 
chief  of  Stadacona.  Three  Indians  were  dressed  as 
devils, "  with  faces  painted  as  black  as  coal,  with  horns 
as  long  as  the  arm,  and  covered  with  the  skins  of  black 
and  white  dogs."  These  devils  were  declared  to  be 
emissaries  of  the  Indian  God  at  Hochelaga,  called 
Cudragny,  who  warned  the  French  that  ''  there  was 
so  much  snow  and  ice  that  all  would  die."  The 
Gaspe  Indians,  who  had  so  long  an  acquaintance 
with  the  religious  customs  and  superstitions  of  the 
French,  endeavoured  to  influence  them  by  appeals 
to  *' Jesus"  and  *' Jesus  Maria."  Cartier,  however, 
only  laughed  at  the  tricks  of  the  Indians,  and  told 
them  that  "  their  God  Cudragny  was  a  mere  fool, 
and  that  Jesus  would  preserve  them  from  all  danger 
if  thev  should  believe  in  Him."  The  French  at  last 
started  on  the  ascent  of  the  river  in  the  Emc'rillon 
and  two  large  boats,  but  neither  Taignoagny  nor 
Domagaya  could  be  induced  to  accompany  the  ex- 
pedition to  Hochelaga. 

Cartier  and  his  men  reached  the  neighbourhood  of 
Hochelaga,  the  Indian  town  on  the  island  of  Mont- 


38  TUE  STORY  OF  CANADA, 

real,  in  about  a  fortnight's  time.  The  appearance 
of  the  country  bordering  on  the  river  between 
Stadacona  and  Hochelaga  pleased  the  I'rciich  on 
account  of  the  springs  of  excellent  water,  the  beauti- 
ful trees,  and  vines  heavil}'  laden  with  grapes,  and 
the  quantities  of  wild  fowl  that  rose  from  every  bay 
or  creek  as  the  voyagers  passed  by.  At  one  j>lace 
called  Achelay,  **  a  strait  with  a  stony  and  danger- 
ous current,  full  of  rocks," — probably  the  Rich.elieu 
Rapids^  above  Point  au  Platon — a  number  of  Indians 
came  on  board  the  Ej)ii'rillon,  warned  Cartier  of  the 
perils  of  the  river,  and  the  cliief  made  him  a  present 
of  two  children,  one  of  whom,  a  little  girl  of  seven 
or  eight  years,  he  accepted  and  promised  to  take 
every  care  of.  Somewhere  on  Lake  St.  Peter  they 
found  the  water  very  shallow  and  decided  to  leave 
the  EDurilloHAwCi  proceed  in  the  boats  to  Ilochelaga, 
where  they  arrived  on  the  second  of  October,  and 
were  met  by  more  than  *^  a  thousand  savages  who 
gathered  about  them,  men,  women,  and  children,  and 
received  us  as  well  as  a  parent  does  a  child,  showing 
great  joy."  After  a  display  of  friendly  feeling  on 
the  part  of  the  natives  and  their  visitors,  and  the 
exchange  of  presents  between  them,  Cartier  returned 
to  his  boat  in  the  stream.  "All  that  night."  says 
the  narrative,  **  the  savages  remained  on  the  shore 
near  our  boats,  keeping  up  fires,  dancing,  crying  out 
*  Aguaze,'  which  is  their  word  for  welcome  and  joy." 
The  king  or  chief  of  this  Indian  domain  was  also 
called  Agouahana,  and  was  a  member  of  the  Huron- 
Iroquois  stock. 

*  The  obstructions  which  created  these  rapids  have  been  removed. 


4 


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39 


40  THE  STORY  OF  CANADA. 

The  French  visitors  were  regarded  by  the  Indians 
of  llochelaga  as  superior  beings,  endowed  with 
supernatural  powers.  Cartier  was  called  upon  to 
touch  the  lame,  blind,  and  wounded,  and  treat  all 
the  ailments  with  which  the  Indians  were  afflicted, 
**  as  if  they  thought  that  God  had  sent  him  to  cure 
them." 

Cartier's  narrative  describes  the  town  as  circular, 
inclosed  by  three  rows  of  palisades  arranged  like  a 
pyramid,  crossed  at  the  top,  with  the  middle  stakes 
standing  perpendicular,  and  the  others  at  an  angle 
on  each  side,  all  being  well  joined  and  fastened  after 
the  Indian  fashion.  The  inclosing  wall  was  of  the 
height  of  two  lances,  or  about  twenty  feet,  and  there 
was  only  one  entrance  through  a  door  generally  kept 
barred.  At  several  points  within  the  inclosure  there 
were  platforms  or  stages  reached  by  ladders,  for  the 
purpose  of  protecting  the  town  with  arrows,  and 
rocks,  piles  of  which  were  close  at  hand.  The  town 
contained  fifty  houses,  each  about  one  hundred  feet 
in  length  and  twenty-five  or  thirty  in  width,  and 
constructed  of  wood,  covered  with  bark  and  strips 
of  board.  These  "  long  houses  "  were  divided  into 
several  apartments,  belonging  to  each  family,  but  all 
of  them  assembled  and  ate  in  common.  Storehouses 
for  their  grain  and  food  were  provided.  They  dried 
and  smoked  their  fish,  of  which  they  had  large  quanti- 
ties. They  pounded  the  grain  between  flat  stones 
and  made  it  into  dough  which  they  cooked  also  on 
hot  rocks.  This  tribe  lived,  Cartier  tells  us,  '*  by 
ploughing  and  fishing  alone,'*  and  were  "  not  no- 
madic like  the  natives  of  Canada  and  the  Saguenay." 


A    BRETON   SAILOR  DISCOVERS  CANADA.        4 1 

Cartier  and  several  of  his  companions  were  taken 
by  the  Indians  to  the  mountain  near  the  town  of 
Hochelaga,  and  were  the  first  Europeans  to  look  on 
that  noble  panorama  of  river  and  forest  which 
stretched  then  without  a  break  over  the  whole  con- 
tinent, except  where  the  Indian  nations  had  made, 
as  at  Hochelaga,  their  villages  and  settlements.  From 
that  day  to  this  the  mountain,  as  well  as  the  great 
city  which  it  now  overlooks  in  place  of  a  humble 
Indian  town,  has  borne  the  name  which  Cartier  gave 
as  a  tribute  to  its  unrivalled  beauty.  As  we  look 
from  the  royal  mountain  on  the  beautiful  elms  and 
maples  rising  in  the  meadows  and  gardens  of  an 
island,  bathed  by  the  waters  of  two  noble  rivers — 
the  green  of  the  St.  Lawrence  mingling  with  the 
blue  of  the  Ottawa — on  the  many  domes  and  towers 
of  churches,  convents,  and  colleges,  on  the  stately 
mansions  of  the  rich,  on  the  tall  chimneys  of  huge 
factories  and  blocks  upon  blocks  of  massive  stores 
and  warehouses,  on  the  ocean  steamers  on  their  way 
to  Europe  by  that  very  river  which  Cartier  would 
not  ascend  with  the  Em^rillon ;  as  we  look  on  this 
beauteous  and  inspiriting  scene,  we  may  well  under- 
stand how  it  is  that  Canada  has  placed  on  Montreal 
the  royal  crown  which  Cartier  first  gave  to  the  moun- 
tain he  saw  on  a  glorious  October  day  when  the 
foliage  was  wearing  the  golden  and  crimson  tints  of 
a  Canadian  auturrin. 

On  Cartier's  return  to  Stadacona  he  found  that 
his  ofificers  had  become  suspicious  of  the  intentions 
of  the  Indians  and  had  raised  a  rude  fort  near  the 
junction  of  the  river  of  St.  Croix  and  the  little  stream 


4^  THE   STORY  OF  CANADA. 

called  the  Lairet.  Here  the  French  passed  a  long 
and  dreary  winter,  doubtful  of  the  friendship  of  the 
Indians,  and  suffering  from  the  intense  cold  to  which 
they  were  unaccustomed.  They  were  attacked  by 
that  dreadful  disease,  the  scurvy,  which  caused  the 
death  of  several  men,  and  did  not  cease  its  ravages 
until  they  learned  from  an  Indian  to  use  a  drink 
evidently  made  from  spruce  boughs.  Then  the 
French  recovered  with  great  rapidity,  and  when  the 
spring  arrived  they  made  their  preparations  to  return 
to  France.  They  abandoned  the  little  Hcrniine,  as 
the  crew  had  been  so  weakened  by  sickness  and 
death.  They  captured  Donnacona  and  several 
other  chiefs  and  determined  to  take  them  to  France 
*'  to  relate  to  the  kini^  the  wonders  of  the  world 
Donnacona  [evidently  a  great  story-teller]  had  seen 
in  these  western  ccnintries,  for  he  had  assured  us 
that  he  had  been  in  the  Saguenay  kingdom,  where 
are  infinite  gold,  rubies,  and  other  riches,  and  white 
men  dressed  in  woollen  clothing."  In  the  vicinity 
of  the  fort,  at  the  meeting  of  the  St.  Croix  and 
Lairet,  Cartier  raised  a  cross,  thirty-five  feet  in  height 
under  the  cross-bar  of  which  there  was  a  wooden 
shield,  showing  the  arms  of  France  and  the  inscrip- 
tion 

Franciscus  Primus  Dei  Gratia  Francorum 

Rex  Regnat. 

When  three  centuries  and  a  half  had  passed,  a 
hundred  thousand  French  Canadians,  in  the  presence 
of  an  English  governor-general  of  Canada,  a  French 
Canadian   lieutenant-governor    and    cardinal    arch- 


A   BA'ETO.V   SAILOA'  DJ SCO  IAEA'S  CANADA.       43 

bishop,  many  ecclesiastical  and  civil  dignitaries, 
assisted  in  the  unveiling  of  a  noble  monument  in 
memory  of  Jacques  Cartier  and  his  hardy  com- 
panions of  the  voyage  of  1535-36,  a*id  of  Jean  de 
Brebeuf,  Ennemond  Masse,  and  Charles  Lalemant, 
the  missionaries  who  built  the  first  residence  of  the 
Jesuits  nearly  a  century  later  on  the  site  of  the  old 
French  fort,  and  one  of  whom  afterwards  sacrificed 
his  life  for  the  faith  to  which  they  were  all  so  devoted. 
On  the  return  vovac^e  Cartier  sailed  to  the  south- 
ward  of  the  Gulf,  saw  the  picturesque  headlands  of 
northern  Cape  Breton,  remained  a  few  days  in  some 
harbours  of  Newfoundland,  and  finally  reached  St. 
Malo  on  the  sixteenth  of  July,  with  the  joyful  news 
that  he  had  discovered  a  great  country  and  a  noble 
river  for  France. 


<l^^x^ 


IV. 


FROM  CARTIER   TO  DE  MONTS. 


(l  540-1603.) 


The  third  voyage  made  by  Cartier  to  the  new 
world,  in  1 541,  was  relatively  of  little  importance. 
Donnacona  and  the  other  Indians  of  Stadacona, 
whom  the  French  carried  away  with  them,  never 
returned  to  their  forest  homes,  but  died  in  France. 
During  the  year  Cartier  remained  in  Canada  he  built  a 
fortified  post  at  Cap  Rouge,  about  seven  miles  west 
of  the  heights  of  Quebec,  and  named  it  Charlesbourg 
in  honour  of  one  of  the  sons  of  Francis  the  First. 
He  visited  Hochelaga,  and  attempted  to  pass  up 
the  river  beyond  the  village,  but  was  stopped  by  the 
dangerous  rapids  now  known  as  the  St.  Louis  or 
Lachine.  He  returned  to  France  in  the  spring  of 
1542,  with  a  few  specimens  of  worthless  metal  re- 
sembling gold  which  he  found  among  the  rocks  of 
Cap  Rouge,  and  some  pieces  of  quartz  crystal 
which  he  believed  were  diamonds,  and  which  have 
given  the  name  to  the  bold  promontory  on  which 
stand  the  ancient  fortifications  of  Quebec. 

44 


OCHELAGA 


LE    SAG 


NAY    V^^^nrrv.,^     ^  \\K^#  s 

t.tf«l-::'7  ':^Xh"^i£  Mr.nr^   -o'^^y^^^ 


-1 


TER 


THE  •*  DAUPHIN  MAP  "  OF  CANADA,  dna  1543,  S 


C  A  N  i  A    D  A 


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13,  SHOWIiNG  CARTIER's  DISCOVERIES. 


F/^OM   CAh'/'/KA'   TO    DE   MOXTS,  45 

Carticr  is  said  t(^  have  returned  on  a  fourth  voy- 
age to  Canada  in  1543 — thou^di  no  record  exists — 
for  the  purpose  of  brini^ing  back  Monsieur  Roberval, 
otherwise  known  to  the  history  of  those  times  as 
Jean  Francois  de  la  Ro(jue,  who  had  been  appointed 
by  Francis  his  lieutenant  in  Canada,  Hochelaga, 
Saguenay,  Newfoundland,  Belle  Isle,  Carpunt,  Lab- 
rador, the  Great  Bay  (St.  Lawrence),  and  Baccalaos, 
as  well  as  lord  of  the  mvsterious  rcfrion  of  Norum- 
bega — an  example  of  the  lavish  use  of  titles  and  the 
assumption  of  royal  dominion  in  an  unknow^n  wilder- 
ness. Roberval  and  Cartier  were  to  have  sailed  in 
company  to  Canada  in  1541,  but  the  former  could 
not  complete  his  arrangements  and  the  latter  sailed 
alone,  as  we  have  just  read.  On  his  return  in  1542 
Cartier  is  said  to  have  met  Roberval  at  a  port  of  the 
Gulf,  and  to  have  secretl)^  stolen  away  in  the  night 
and  left  his  chief  to  go  on  to  the  St.  Lawrence 
alone.  But  these  are  among  historic  questions  in 
dispute,  and  it  is  useles.^  to  dwell  on  them  here. 
What  we  do  know  to  a  certainty  is  that  Roberval 
spent  some  months  on  the  banks  of  the  St.  Law- 
rence,— probably  from  the  spring  of  1 542  to  late 
in  the  autumn  of  1543, — and  built  a  commodious 
fort  at  Charlesbourg,  which  he  renamed  France-Roy. 
He  passed  a  miserable  winter,  as  many  of  the  colo- 
nists he  had  brought  w^ith  him  had  been  picked  up 
amongst  the  lowest  classes  of  France,  and  he  had  to 
govern  his  ill-assorted  company  w^ith  a  rigid  and  even 
cruel  hand.  Roberval  is  said  to  have  visited  the 
Saguenay  and  explored  its  waters  and  surrounding 
country  for  a  considerable  distance,  evidently  hoping 


46  THE   STORY  OF  CANADA, 

to  verify  the  fables  of  Donnacona  and  other  Indians 
that  gold  and  precious  stones  were  to  be  found 
somewhere  in  that  region.  His  name  has  been  given 
to  a  httle  village  at  Lake  St.  John,  on  the  assump- 
tion that  he  actually  went  so  far  on  his  Saguenay 
expedition,  while  romantic  tradition  points  to  an  isle 
in  the  Gulf,  the  Isle  de  la  Demoiselle,  where  he  is  said 
to  have  abandoned  his  niece  ?»larguerite, — who  had 
loved  not  wisely  but  too  well — her  lover,  and  an  old 
nurse.  This  rocky  spot  appears  to  have  become  in 
the  story  an  isle  of  Demons  who  tormented  the  poor 
wretches,  exposed  to  all  the  rigours  of  Canadian  win 
ters,  and  to  starvation  except  when  they  could  catch 
fish  or  snare  wild  fowl.  The  nurse  and  lover  as  well 
as  the  infant  died,  but  Marguerite  is  said  to  have 
remained  much  longer  on  that  lonely  island  until  at 
last  Fate  brought  to  her  rescue  a  passing  vessel  and 
carried  her  to  France,  where  she  is  said  to  have  told 
the  story  of  her  adventures. 

After  this  voyage  Roberval  disappeared  from  the 
history  of  Canada.  Cartier  is  supposed  to  have 
died  about  1577  in  his  old  manor  house  of  Limoilou, 
now  in  ruins,  in  the  neighbourhood  of  St.  Malo. 
He  was  allowed  by  the  King  to  bear  always  the 
name  of  "  Captain  " — an  appropriate  title  for  a  hardy 
sailor  w^ho  represented  so  well  the  heroism  and  enter- 
prise of  the  men  of  St.  Malo  and  the  Breton  coast. 
The  results  of  the  voyages  of  Cartier,  Roberv^al,  and 
the  sailors  and  fishermen  who  frequented  the  waters 
of  the  Great  Bay,  as  the  French  long  called  it,  can 
be  seen  in  the  old  maps  that  have  come  down  to  us, 
^nd   show   the  increasing  geographical  knowledge. 


FK'OM  CAKTIEN  TO   DE   MONTS,  47 

To  this  knowledge,  a  famous  pilot,  Captain  Jchan 
Alfoncc,  a  native  of  the  little  villaj^e  of  Saintonge  in 
the  grape  district  of  Charente,  made  valuable  contri- 
butions. He  accompanied  Roberval  to  Canada,  and 
afterwards  made  voyages  to  the  Saguenay,  and 
appears  to  have  explored  the  Gulf  and  the  coasts  of 
Cape  Iketon,  Nova  Scotia,  and  even  Maine  as  far  as 
the  Penobscot,  where  he  believed  was  the  city  of 
Norumbega. 

After  the  death  of  Francis  there  came  dark  days 
for  France,  whose  people  were  torn  asunder  by  civil 
war  and  religious  strife.  With  the  return  of  peace 
in  France  the  Marcpiis  de  la  Roche  received  a  com- 
mission from  Henry  the  Fourth,  as  lieutenant- 
general  of  the  King,  to  colonise  Canada,  but  his 
ill-fated  expedition  of  1597  never  got  beyond  the 
dangerous  sandbanks  of  Sable  Island.  French  fur- 
traders  had  now  found  their  way  to  Anticosti  and 
even  Tadousac,  at  the  mouth  of  the  Saguenay, 
vi^here  the  Indians  were  wont  to  assemble  in  large 
numbers  from  the  great  fur-region  to  which  that 
melancholv  river  and  its  tributarv  lakes  and  rivers 
give  access,  but  these  traders  like  the  fishermen 
made  no  attempt  to  settle  the  country. 

From  a  very  early  date  in  the  sixteenth  century 
bold  sailors  from  the  west  country  of  Devon  were 
fishing  in  the  Gulf  and  eventually  made  the  safe  and 
commodious  port  of  St.  John's,  in  New^foundland, 
their  headquarters.  Some  adventurous  Englishmen 
even  made  a  search  for  the  land  of  Norumbega,  and 
probably  reached  the  bay  of  Penobscot.  Near  the 
close  of  the  century,  Frobisher  attempted  to  open  up 


48  THE    STOKY  OF  CANADA. 

the  secrets  of  the  Arctic  seas  and  find  that  passage 
to  the  north  which  rcmaincil  closed  to  venturesome 
explorers  until  Sir  Robert  McClure,  in  1850,  success- 
fully passed  the  icebergs  and  ice-tloes  that  barred  his 
way  from  Bering  Sea  to  Davis  Strait.  In  the  reign 
of  the  great  Elizabeth,  when  Englishmen  were  at 
last  showing  that  ability  for  maritime  enterprise 
which  was  eventually  to  develop  such  remarkable 
results,  Sir  Humphrey  Gilbert,  the  half-brother  of 
Sir  Walter  Ralegh,  the  founder  of  Virginia,  the  Old 
Dominion,  took  possession  of  Newfoundland  with 
much  ceremony  in  the  harbour  of  St.  John's,  and 
erected  a  pillar  on  which  were  inscribed  the  Queen's 
arms.  Gilbert  had  none  of  the  qualities  of  a  coloniser, 
and  on  his  voyage  back  to  England  he  was  lost  at 
sea,  and  it  was  left  to  the  men  of  Devon  and  the 
West  coast  in  later  times  to  make  a  permanent 
settlement  on  the  great  island  of  the  Gulf. 

The  first  years  of  the  seventeenth  century  were 
propitious  for  important  schemes  of  colonisation  and 
trade  in  the  western  lands.  The  sovereign  of  France 
was  Henry  the  Fourth,  the  intrepid  Prince  of  Beam, 
as  brave  a  soldier  as  he  was  a  sagacious  statesman. 
Henry  listened  favourably — though  his  able  minister, 
Sully,  held  different  views — to  the  schemes  for  open- 
ing up  Canada  to  commerce  and  settlement  that  were 
laid  before  him  by  an  old  veteran  of  the  wars,  and 
a  staunch  friend,  Aymar  de  Chastes,  governor  of 
Dieppe.  Pontgrave,  a  rich  Breton  merchant  of  St. 
Malo,  had  the  charge  of  the  two  vessels  which  left 
France  in  the  spring  of  1603,  but  it  is  a  fact  that  a 
great  man,  Samuel  Champlain,  accompanied  the  ex- 


FROM  CARTIER  TO   DE   MOXTS.  49 

pedition  that  gives  the  chief  interest  to  the  voyage. 
Champlain,  who  was  destined  to  be  the  founder  of 
New  France,  was  a  native  of  Brouage  in  the  Bay  of 
Biscay,  and  belonged  to  a  family  of  fishermen.  Dur- 
ing the  war  of  the  League  he  served  in  the  army  of 
Henry  the  Third,  but  when  Henry  of  Navarre  was 
proclaimed  King  of  France  on  the  assassination  of 
his  predecessor,  and  abjured  the  Protestant  faith  of 
which  he  had  previously  been  the  champion,  Cham- 
plain,  like  other  Frenchmen,  who  had  followed  the 
Duke  of  Guise,  became  an  ardent  supporter  of  the 
new  regime  and  eventually  a  favourite  of  the  Bernese 
prince.  He  visited  the  West  Indies  in  a  Spanish 
ship  and  made  himself  well  acquainted  with  Mexico 
and  other  countries  bordering  on  the  Gulf.  He  has 
"Inscribed  all  his  voyages  to  the  Indies  and  Canada 

ouaint  quarto  volumes,  now  very  rare,  and  valu- 
r.     ^  on  account  of  their  minute  and  truthful  narra- 

j — despite  his  lively  and  credulous  imagination — 
and  the  drawings  and  maps  which  he  made  rudely 
of  ^.he  places  he  saw.  His  accounts  of  the  Indians 
of  Canada  are  among  the  most  valuable  tnat  have 
come  to  us  from  the  early  days  of  American  history. 
He  had  a  fair  knowledge  of  natural  history  for  those 
times,  though  he  believed  in  Mexican  grififins,  and 
was  versed  in  geography  and  cartography. 

In  1603  Fontgrave  and  Champlain  ascended  the 
River  St.  Lawrence  as  far  as  the  island  of  Montreal, 
where  they  found  only  a  few  wandering  Algonquins 
of  the  Ottawa  and  its  tributaries,  in  place  of  the  peo- 
ple who  had  inhabited  the  town  of  Hochelaga  in  the 
days   of  Cartier's  visits.     Champlain  attempted  to 


50  THE   STORY  OF  CANADA. 

pass  the  Lachine  rapids  but  was  soon  forced  to  give 
up  the  perilous  and  impossible  venture.  During 
this  voyage  he  explored  the  Saguenay  for  a  consider- 
able distance,  and  was  able  to  add  largely  to  the  in- 
formation that  Cartier  had  given  of  Canada  and  the 
country  around  the  Gulf.  When  the  expedition 
reached  France,  Aymar  de  Chastes  was  dead,  but 
two  months  had  hardly  elapsed  after  Champlain's 
return  when  a  new  company  was  formed  on  the  usual 
basis  of  trade  and  colonisation.  At  its  head  was 
Sieur  de  Monts,  Pierre  du  Guast,  the  governor  of 
Pons,  a  Calvinist  and  a  friend  of  the  King.  After 
much  deliberation  it  was  decided  to  venture  south 
of  Canada  and  explore  that  ill-defined  region,  called 
"  La  Cadie  "  in  the  royal  commission  given  to  De 
Monts  as  the  King's  lieutenant  in  Canada  and  adja- 
cent countries,  the  first  record  we  have  of  that 
Acadia  where  French  and  English  were  to  contend 
during  a  century  for  the  supremacy.  For  a  few 
moments  we  must  leave  the  valley  of  the  St.  Law- 
rence, where  France  was  soon  to  enthrone  herself  on 
the  heights  of  Quebec,  and  visit  a  beautiful  bay  on 
the  western  coast  of  Nova  Scotia,  where  a  sleepy 
old  town,  full  of  historic  associations,  still  stands  to 
recall  the  efforts  of  gentlemen-adventurers  to  es- 
tablish a  permanent  settlement  on  the  shores  of  the 
Atlantic. 


V. 


THE  FRENCH  OCCUPATION  OF  ACADIA  AND  THE 
FOUNDATION  OF  PORT  ROYAL. 


(1604- 1 6 14.) 


In  the  western  valley  of  that  part  of  French  Acadia, 
now  known  as  Nova  Scotia,  not  only  do  we  tread  on 
historic  ground,  bnt  we  see  in  these  days  a  land- 
scape of  more  varied  beauty  than  that  which  so 
delighted  the  gentlemen-adventurers  of  old  France 
nearly  three  centuries  ago.  In  this  country,  which 
the  poem  conceived  by  Longfellow  amid  the  elms  of 
Cambridge  has  made  so  famous,  we  see  the  rich 
lands  reclaimed  from  the  sea,  which  glistens  a  few 
miles  to  the  north,  and  every  day  comes  rushing  up 
its  estuaries.  There  to  the  north  is  dark,  lofty 
Blomidon — whose  name  is  probably  a  memorial  of  a 
Portuguese  voyager — with  its  overhanging  cliff  under 
which  the  tumultuous  tides  struggle  and  foam.  Here, 
in  a  meadow  close  by,  is  a  long  row  of  Lombardy 
poplars,  pointing  to  another  race  and  another  country. 
There,  on  a  slight  acclivity,  among  the  trees,  is  a  pile 
of  white  college  buildings,  there  a  tall  white  spire 

51 


52  THE   STORY  OF  CANADA. 

rises  into  the  pure  blue  sky.  We  sec  cottages  covered 
with  honeysuckle  and  grapevine ;  with  their  gardens 
of  roses  and  lilies,  and  many  oid-tashioned  flowers. 
In  the  spring,  the  country  is  one  mass  of  pink  and 
white  blossoms,  which  load  the  passing  breeze  with 
delicate  fragrance  ;  in  autumn  the  trees  bend  beneath 
rosy  and  yellow  apples. 

We  drive  through  a  fertile  valley,  where  runs  a 
placid  river  amid  many  meadows,  gardens,  and  or- 
chards, until  at  last  it  empties  into  a  picturesque 
basin,  where  the  landscape  shows  a  harmonious 
blending  of  mountain  and  water,  of  cultivated  fields 
and  ancient  forest  trees.  Here  we  see  a  quiet  old 
town,  whose  roofs  are  green  with  the  moss  of  many 
years,  where  willows  and  grassy  mounds  tell  of  a 
historic  past,  where  the  bells  of  ox-teams  tinkle  in 
the  streets,  and  commerce  itself  wears  a  look  of 
reminiscence.  For  we  have  come  to  the  banks  of 
that  basin  where  the  French,  in  the  first  years  of  the 
seventeenth  century,  laid  the  foundations  of  a  settle- 
ment which,  despite  all  its  early  misfortunes,  has 
lasted  until  the  present  time,  though  it  is  the  English 
tongue  that  is  now  spoken  and  the  Englishman  who 
is  now  the  occupant. 

Early  in  the  leafy  month  of  June,  1604,  the  French 
under  De  Monts  sailed  into  this  spacious  basin,  and 
saw  for  the  first  time  its  grassy  meadows,  its  numer- 
ous streams,  its  cascades  tumbling  from  the  hills,  its 
forest-clad  mountains.  ^*  This,"  said  Champlain, 
who  called  it  Port  Royal,  '*  was  the  most  commodi- 
ous and  pleasant  place  that  we  had  yet  seen  in  thi§ 
country." 


TIIK   I^RENCH   OCCUPATION   OF  ACADIA.         53 

It  appears  that  the  adventurers  left  France  in  the 
early  part  of  April.  When  the  King  had  been  once 
won  over  to  the  project,  he  consented  to  give  De 
Monts  and  his  associates  an  entire  monopoly  of  the 
fur-trade  through -^ut  the  wide  domain  of  which  he 
was  to  be  the  viceroy.  The  expedition  was  chiefly 
supported  by  the  merchants  of  the  Protestant  town 
of  La  Rochelle,  and  was  regarded  with  much  jeal- 
ousy by  other  commercial  cities.  Protestants  were 
to  enjoy  in  the  new  colony  all  the  advantages  they 
were  then  allowed  in  France.  The  Catholics  were 
appeased  by  the  condition  that  the  conversion  of  the 
natives  should  be  reserved  especially  for  the  priests 
of  their  own  church. 

The  man  of  most  note,  after  De  Monts  and  Cham- 
plain,  was  Jean  de  Biencourt,  a  rich  nobleman  of 
Picardy,  better  known  in  Acadian  history  as  the 
Baron  de  Poutrincourt,  who  had  distinguished  him- 
self as  a  soldier  in  the  civil  wars.  A  man  of  energy 
and  enterprise,  he  was  well  fitted  to  assist  in  the 
establishment  of  a  colony. 

De  Monts  and  his  associates  reached  without  acci- 
dent the  low  fir-covered  shores  of  Nova  Scotia, 
visited  several  of  its  harbours,  and  finally  sailed  into 
the  Bay  of  Fundy,  which  was  named  Baie  Frangaise. 
The  French  explored  the  coast  of  the  bay  after  leav- 
ing Port  Royal,  and  discovered  the  river  which  the 
Indians  called  Ouigoudi,  or  highway,  and  De  Monts 
renamed  St.  John,  as  he  saw  it  first  on  the  festival 
of  that  saint.  Proceeding  along  the  northern  shores 
of  the  bay  the  expedition  came  to  a  river  which  falls 
into  Passamaquoddy  Bay,  and  now  forms  the  boun- 


54  THE   STORY  OF  CANADA, 

darv  between  the  United  States  and  the  eastern 
provinces  of  Canada.  This  river  ever  since  has  been 
called  the  river  of  the  Holy  Cross  (Sainte-Croix) 
though  the  name  was  first  given  by  De  Monts  to  an 
islet,  well  within  the  mouth  of  the  stream,  which  he 
chose  as  the  site  of  the  first  French  settlement  on 
the  northeast  coast  of  America.  Buildings  were 
soon  erected  for  the  accommodation  of  some  eighty 
persons,  as  well  as  a  small  fort  for  their  protection 
on  the  rocky  islet.  * 

While  the  French  settlement  was  preparing  for 
the  winter,  Champlain  explored  the  eastern  coast 
from  the  St.  Croix  to  the  Penobscot,  where  he  :ame 
to  the  conclusion  that  the  story  of  a  large  city  on  its 
banks  was  evidently  a  mere  invention  of  the  imagi- 
native mind.  He  also  was  the  first  of  Europeans,  so 
far  as  we  know,  to  look  on  the  mountains  and  cliffs 
of  the  island — so  famous  as  a  summer  resort  in  these 
later  times — which  he  very  aptly  named  Monts- 
Deserts.  During  the  three  years  Champlain  re- 
mained in  Acadia  he  made  explorations  and  surveys 
of  the  southern  coasts  of  Nova  Scotia  from  Canseau 
to  Port  Royal,  of  the  shores  of  the  Bay  of  Fundy, 
and  of  the  coast  of  New  England  from  the  St.  Croix 
to  Vineyard  Sound. 

Poutrincourt,  who  had  received  from  De  Monts 
a  grant  of  the  country  around  Port  Royal,  left  his 
companions  in  their  dreary  home  in  the  latter  part 
of  August  and  sailed  for  France,  with  the  object  of 
making  arrangements  for  settling  his  new  domain  in 

*  Now  known  as  Douchet  Island  ;  no  relics  remain  of  the  French 
occupation. 


THE  FRENCH  OCCUPATION  OF  ACADIA.         55 

Acadia.  He  found  that  very  little  interest  was 
taken  in  the  new  colony  of  which  very  unsatisfactory 
reports  were  brought  back  to  France  by  his  com- 
panions though  he  himself  gave  a  glowing  account 
of  its  beautiful  scenery  and  resources. 

While  Poutrincourt  was  still  in  France,  he  was  sur- 
prised to  learn  of  the  arrival  of  De  Monts  with  very 
unsatisfactory  accounts  of  the  state  of  affairs  in 
the  infant  colony.  The  adventurers  had  very  soon 
found  St.  Croix  entirely  unfitted  for  a  permament 
settlement,  and  after  a  most  wretched  winter  had 
removed  to  the  sunny  banks  of  the  Annapolis,  which 
was  then  known  as  the  Equille,"^  and  subsequently  as 
the  Dauphin.  Poutrincourt  and  De  Monts  went 
energetically  to  work,  and  succeeded  in  obtaining  the 
services  of  all  the  mechanics  and  labourers  they 
required.  The  new  expedition  was  necessarily  com- 
posed of  very  unruly  characters,  who  sadly  offended 
the  staid  folk  of  that  orderly  bulwark  of  Calvinism, 
the  town  of  La  Rochelle.  At  last  on  the  13th  of 
May,  1606,  the  Jonas,  with  its  unruly  crew  all  on 
board,  left  for  the  new  world  under  the  command  of 
Poutrincourt.  Among  the  passengers  was  L'Escar- 
bot,  a  Paris  advocate,  a  poet,  and  an  historian,  1  o 
whom  we  are  indebted  for  a  very  sprightly  account 
of  early  French  settlement  in  America.  De  Monts, 
however,  was  unable  to  leave  with  his  friends. 

On  the  27th  July,  the  Jofias  entered  the  basin  of 
Port  Royal  with  the  flood-tide.  A  peal  from  the 
rude  bastion  of  the  little  fort  bore  testimony  to  the 

*  Champlain  says  the  river  was  named  after  a  little  fish  caught  there, 
de  grandeur  d'un  esplan. 


56  THE   STORY  OF  CAXADA. 

joy  of    the  two    solitary  Frenchmen,   wlio,   with  a 
faithful  old   Indian   chief,  were  the  only  inmates  of 
the  post  at  that  time.     These  men,  La  Taille  and 
Miquellet,  explained  that  Pontgrave  and  Champlain, 
with  the  rest  of  the  colony,  had   set  sail  for  T^-ance 
a  few  days   previously,  in   two  small   vessels  which 
they  had   built  themselves.     But  there  was  no  time 
to   spend   in  vain   regrets.      Poutrincourt  opened    a 
hogshead  of  wine,  and   the   fort  was  soon  the  scene 
of   mirth  and    festivity.     Poutrincourt   set  energeti- 
cally to  improve  the  condition  of  things,  by  making 
additions   to  the    buildings,  and    clearing    the   sur- 
rounding land,  which  is  exceedingly  rich.     The  fort 
stood   on  the  north  bank  of  the  river — on  what  is 
now  the   Granville   side — opposite   Goat    Island,  or 
about  six  miles  from  the  present  town  of  Annapolis. 
L'Escarbot  appeals  to  have  been   the  very  life  of 
the  little  colony.     If  anything  occurred  to  dampen 
their  courage,  his  fertile   mind  soon  devised  some 
plan    of    chasing    away   forebodings    of    ill.      When 
Poutrincourt  and  his  party  returned  during  the  sum- 
mer of   1606  in  ill  spirits  from   Malebarre,  now  Cape 
Cod,  where    several   men    had    been   surprised   and 
killed  by  the  savages,  they  were  met  on  their  land- 
ing by  a   procession   of  Tritons,   with   Neptune   at 
their  head,  who  saluted  the  adventurers  with  merry 
songs.     As  they  entered  the  arched  gateway,  they 
saw   above    their    heads    another    happy   device   of 
L'Escarbot,    the  arms  of    France    and    the    King's 
motto,  "  Duo  protegit  timis,''  encircled  with  laurels. 
Under  this  were  the  arms  of  De  Monts  and  Poutrin- 
court, with  their  respective  mottoes — '^  Dabit  deus 


THE  IREXCll   OCCUPATION   OF  AC  AD! A. 


57 


his  qnoqiie  finein,''  and  "  /;/  via  virtiiti  nulla  est  via^^ 
— also  surrounded  with  evergreens. 

L'Escarbot's  ingenious  mind  did  not  fail  him, 
even  in  respect  to  the  daily  sui)ply  of  fresh  provi- 
sions, for  he  created  a  new  order  for  the  especial 
benefit  of  the  principal  table,  at  which  Poutrincourt, 
he   himself,  and   thirteen  others  sat  daily.      These 


ckamplain's  plan  of  port  royal  in  acadla.  l\  1605. 

Key  to  illustration:  A,  Workmen's  dwelling;  B,  Platform  for  cannon;  C, 
Storehouse  ;  D,  Residence  for  Champlain  and  Pontcjrave  ;  E,  Blacksmith's  forge  ; 
F,  Palisade  ;  G,  Bakehouse  ;  H,  Kitchen  ;  I,  Gardens  ;  K,  Burying  ground  ;  L, 
St,  Lawrence  River ;  M,  Moat ;  N,  Dwelling  of  De  Monts ;  and  O,  Ships'  store- 
house. 


fifteen  gentlemen  constituted  themselves  into/' (9r^r^ 
dc  Bon  Temps,  one  of  whom  was  grandmaster  for  a 
day,  and  bound  to  cater  for  the  company.  Each 
tried,  of  course,  to  excel  the  other  in  the  quantity  of 
game  and  fish  they  were  able  to  gather  from  the 


58  THE   STOKY  OF  CANADA. 

surrounding  country,  and  the  consequence  was, 
Poutrincourt's  table  never  wanted  any  of  the  luxu- 
ries  that  the  river  or  forest  could  supply.  At  the 
dinner  hour  the  grandmaster,  with  the  insignia  of 
his  order,  a  costly  collar  around  his  neck,  a  staff  in 
his  hand,  and  a  napkin  on  his  shoulder,  came  into 
the  hall  at  the  head  of  his  brethren,  each  of  whom 
carried  some  dish.  The  Indians  were  frequent 
guests  at  their  feasts,  especially  old  Membertou,  a 
famous  Micmac  or  Souriquois  chief,  who  always 
retained  a  warm  attachment  for  the  pale-f^iced 
strangers.  Songs  of  La  Belle  France  were  sung; 
many  a  toast  was  drunk  in  some  rare  vintage, — the 
flames  flew  up  the  huge  chimney, — the  Indians 
squatted  on  the  floor,  laughing  like  the  merry 
Frenchmen.  When  the  pipe  went  around  —  with 
its  lobster-like  bowl  and  tube  elaborately  worked 
with  porcupine  quills — stories  were  told,  and  none 
excelled  the  Indians  themselves  in  this  part  of  the 
entertainment.  At  last,  when  the  tobacco  was  all 
exhausted,  the  grandmaster  resigned  his  regalia  of 
office  to  his  successor,  who  lost  no  time  in  perform- 
ing his  duties.  Thus  the  long  winter  evenings  passed 
in  that  lonely  French  fort  at  the  verge  of  an  untamed 
continent. 

Then  came  bad  news  from  France.  Late  in  the 
spring  of  1607,  a  vessel  sailed  into  the  basin  with 
letters  from  De  Monts  that  the  colony  would  have 
to  be  broken  up,  as  his  charter  had  been  revoked, 
and  the  Company  could  no  longer  support  Port 
Royal.  The  Breton  and  Basque  merchants,  who 
were  very  hostile  to  De  Monts's  monopoly,  had  sucr 


THE  FRENCH  OCCUPATION  OF  ACADIA.         59 

ceeded  in  influencing  the  government  to  withdraw 
its  patronage  from  him  and  his  associates.  Soon 
afterwards  the  little  colony  regretfully  left  Port 
Royal,  which  never  looked  so  lovely  in  their  eyes  as 
they  passed  on  to  the  Bay  of  Fundy,  and  saw  the 
wh'^le  country  in  the  glory  of  mid-summer.  The 
Indians,  especially  Membertou,  watched  the  depart- 
ure of  their  new  friends  with  unfeigned  regret,  and 
promised  to  look  carefuHy  after  the  safety  of  the 
fort  and  its  contents. 

As  soon  as  Poutrincourt  reached  his  native  coun- 
try he  did  his  best  to  make  friends  at  the  Court,  as 
he  was  resolved  on  returning  to  Acadia,  while 
Champlain  decided  to  venture  to  the  St.  Lawrence, 
where  I  shall  take  up  his  memorable  story  later. 
Poutrincourt's  prospects,  for  a  time,  were  exceed- 
ingly gloomy.  De  Monts  w^as  able  to  assist  him  but 
very  little,  and  the  adventurous  Baron  himself  was 
involved  in  debt  and  litigations,  but  he  eventually 
succeeded  in  obtaining  a  renewal  of  his  grant  from 
the  King,  and  interesting  some  wealthy  traders  in 
the  enterprise.  Then  some  difficulties  of  a  religious 
character  th*^  atened  to  interfere  with  the  success  of 
the  expedition.  The  society  of  Jesuits  w^as,  at  this 
time,  exceedingly  influential  at  court,  and,  in  conse- 
quence of  their  representations,  the  King  ordered 
that  Pierre  Biard,  professor  of  theology  at  Lyons, 
should  accoiT>pany  the  expedition.  Though  Poutrin- 
court was  a  good  Catholic,  he  mistrusted  this  reli- 
gious order,  and  succeeded  in  deceiving  Father 
Biard,  who  was  waiting  for  him  at  Bordeaux,  by 
taking  his  departure  from  Dieppe  in  company  with 


6o  THE  STORY  OF  CANADA. 

m 

Father  F16ch^,  who  was  not  a  member  of  the 
Jesuits. 

The  ship  entered  Port  Royal  basin  in  the  begin- 
ning of  June,  1610.  Here  they  were  agreeably 
surprised  to  find  the  buildings  and  their  contents 
perfectly  safe,  and  their  old  friend  Membertou,  now 
a  centenarian,  looking  as  hale  as  ever,  and  over- 
whelmed with  joy  at  the  return  of  the  friendly  pale- 
faces. Among  the  first  things  that  Poutiincourt 
did,  after  his  arrival,  was  to  make  converts  of  the 
Indians.  Father  Flechc  soon  convinced  Membertou 
and  all  his  tribe  of  the  truths  of  Christianity.  Mem- 
bertou was  named  Henri,  after  the  king;  his  chief 
squaw  Marie,  after  the  queen.  The  Pope,  the  Dau- 
phin, Marguerite  de  Valois,  and  other  ladies  and 
gentlemen  famous  in  the  history  of  their  times, 
became  sponsors  for  the  Micmac  converts  who  were 
gathered  into  mother  church  on  St.  John's  day, 
with  the  most  imposing  ceremonies  that  the  French 
could  arrange  in  that  wild  country. 

Conscious  of  the  influence  of  the  Jesuits  at  Court, 
and  desirous  of  counteracting  any  prejudice  that 
might  have  been  created  against  him,  Poutrincourt 
decided  to  send  his  son,  a  fine  youth  of  eighteen 
years,  in  the  ship  returning  to  France,  with  a  state- 
ment showing  his  zeal  in  converting  the  natives  of 
the  new  colony. 

When  this  youthful  ambassador  reached  France, 
Henry  of  Navarre  had  perished  by  the  knife  of 
Ravaillac,  and  Marie  de'  Medici,  that  wily,  cruel, 
and  false  Italian,  was  regent  during  the  minority  of 
her  son,   Louis  XIII.     The  Jesuits  were  now  all- 


THE  fREXCH  OCCUPATION  OF  ACADIA.        6\ 

powerful  at  the  Louvre,  and  it  was  decided  that 
Fathers  Hianl  and  I-lnnemond  Masse  should  accom- 
pany Biencourt  to  Acadia.  The  hidies  of  the  Court, 
especially  Madame  de  Guercheville,  wife  of  Duke 
de  la  Rochefoucauld  de  Liancourt,  whose  reputation 
could  not  be  assailed  by  the  tongue  of  scandal,  even 
in  a  state  of  society  when  virtue  was  too  often  the 
exception,  interested  themselves  in  the  work  of  con- 
verting the  savages  of  Acadia.  The  business  of  the 
Protestant  traders  of  Dieppe  was  purchased  and 
made  over  to  the  Jesuits.  Thus  did  these  indefati- 
gable priests,  for  the  first  time,  engage  in  the  work  of 
converting  the  savage  in  the  American  wilderness. 

The  vessel  which  took  Biencourt  and  his  friends 
back  to  Port  Royal  arrived  on  the  22nd  of  July, 
161 1,  off  the  fort,  where  Poutrincourt  and  his  col- 
onists were  exceedingly  short  of  supplies.  His  very 
first  act  was  to  appoint  his  son  as  vice-admiral,  while 
he  himself  went  on  to  France  with  the  hope  of  ob- 
taining further  aid  about  the  middle  of  July. 

The  total  number  oi  persons  in  the  colony  was 
only  twenty-two,  including  the  two  Jesuits,  who 
immediately  commenced  to  lea*n  Micmac,  as  the 
first  step  necessary  to  the  success  of  the  work  they 
had  in  hand.  The  two  priests  suffered  many  hard- 
ships, but  they  bore  their  troubles  with  a  patience 
and  resignation  which  gained  them  even  the  admira- 
tion of  those  who  were  not  prepossessed  in  their 
favour.  Masse,  who  had  gone  to  live  among  the 
Indians,  was  nearly  starved  and  smoked  to  death  in 
their  rude  camps ;  but  still  he  appears  to  have  perse- 
vered in  that  course  of  life  as  long  as  he  possibly 


62  THE   STORY  OF  CANADA.      . 

could.  About  this  time  the  priests  had  the  consola- 
tion of  performing  the  last  offices  for  the  veteran 
Membertou,  the  staunch  friend  of  the  French  colo- 
nists. On  his  death-bed  he  expressed  a  strong  desire 
to  be  buried  with  his  forefathers,,  but  the  arguments 
of  his  priestly  advisers  overcame  his  superstition, 
and  his  remains  were  finally  laid  in  consecrated 
ground. 

Matters  looked  very  gloomy  by  the  end  of  Febru- 
ary, when  a  ship  arrived  very  opportunely  from 
France  with  a  small  store  of  supplies.  The  news 
from  Foutrincourt  was  most  discouraging.  Unable 
to  raise  further  funds  on  his  own  responsibility,  he 
had  accepted  the  proffer  of  assistance  from  Mme.  de 
Guercheville,  who,  in  her  zeal,  had  also  bought  from 
De  Monts  ali  nis  claims  over  the  colony,  with  the 
exception  of  Port  Royal,  which  belonged  to  Fou- 
trincourt. The  King  not  only  consented  to  the 
transfer  but  gave  her  a  grant  of  the  territory  extend- 
ing from  Florida  to  Canada.  The  society  of  Jesuits 
was  therefore  virtually  in  possession  of  North  Amer- 
ica as  far  as  a  French  deed  could  give  it  away.  But 
the  French  king  forgot  when  he  was  making  this  lav- 
ish gift  of  a  continent,  that  the  British  laid  claims  to 
the  same  region  and  had  already  established  a  col- 
ony in  Virginia,  which  was  then  an  undefined  terri- 
tory, extending  from  Florida  to  New  France.  Both 
France  and  England  weie  now  face  to  face  on  the 
new  continent,  and  a  daring  English  adventurer  was 
about  to  strike  in  Acadia  the  first  blow  for  Ei  j  sh 
supremacy. 

Such  was  the  position  of  affairs  at  the  tinie  of  the 


THE  FRENCH  OCCUPATION  OF  ACADIA.        63 

arrival  of  the  new  vessel  and  cargo,  which  were 
under  the  control  of  Simon  Imbert,  who  had  for- 
merly been  a  servant  to  Poutrincourt.  Among  the 
passengers  was  another  Jesuit  father,  Gilbert  Du 
Thet,  who  came  out  in  the  interests  of  Mme.  de 
Guercheville  and  his  own  order.  The  two  agents 
quarrelled  from  the  very  day  they  set  out  until  they 
arrived  at  Port  Royal,  and  then  ti'^e  colony  took  the 
matter  up.  At  last  the  difficulties  were  settled  by 
Du  Thet  receiving  permission  to  return  to  France. 

A  few  months  later,  at  the  end  of  May,  1613,  an- 
other French  ship  anchored  off  Port  Royal.  She 
had  been  sent  out  with  a  fine  supply  of  stores,  not 
by  Poutrincourt,  but  by  Mme.  de  Guercheville,  and 
was  under  the  orders  of  M.  Saussaye,  a  gentleman 
by  birth  and  a  man  of  ability.  On  board  were  two 
Jesuits,  Fathers  Quentin  and  Gilbert  Du  Thet  and  a 
number  of  colonists.  Poutrincourt,  it  appeared,  was 
in  prison  and  ill,  unable  to  do  anything  whatever 
for  his  friends  across  the  ocean.  This  was,  indeed, 
sad  news  for  Biencourt  and  his  faithful  allies,  who 
had  been  anxiously  expecting  assistance  from 
France. 

At  Port  Royal  the  new  vessel  took  on  board  the 
two  priests  Biard  and  Masse,  and  sailed  towards  the 
coast  of  New  England;  for  Saussaye's  instructions 
were  to  found  a  new  colony  in  the  vicinity  of  Pen- 
tagoet  (Penobscot).  In  consequence  of  the  prevalent 
sea-fogs,  however,  they  were  driven  to  the  island  of 
Monts-D^serts,  where  they  found  a  harbour  which, 
it  was  decided,  would  answer  all  their  purposes  on 
the  western  side  of  Soames's  Sound.     Saussaye  and 


64  THE   STORY  OF  CANADA, 

his  party  had  commenced  to  erect  buildings  for  the 
new  colony,  when  an  event  occurred  which  placed  a 
very  different  complexion  on  matters. 

A  man-of-war  came  sailing  into  the  harbour,  and 
from  her  masthead  floated,  not  the  fleur-de-lis,  but 
the  blood-red  flag  of  England.  This  new-comer  was 
Samuel  Argall,  a  young  English  sea  captain,  a 
coarse,  passionate,  and  daring  man,  who  had  been 
some  time  associated  with  the  fortunes  of  Virginia. 
In  the  spring  of  161 3  he  set  sail  in  a  stout  vessel  of 
130  tons,  carrying  14  guns  and  60  men,  for  a  cruise 
to  the  coast  of  Maine  for  a  supply  of  cod-fish,  and 
whilst  becalmed  off  Monts-Deserts,  some  Indians 
came  on  board  and  informed  him  of  the  presence  of 
the  French  in  the  vicinity  of  that  island.  He  looked 
upon  the  French  as  encroaching  upon  British  terri- 
tory, and  in  a  few  hours  had  destroyed  the  infant 
settlement  of  St.  Sauveur.  Saussaye  was  perfectly 
paralysed,  and  attempted  no  defence  when  he  saw 
that  Argall  had  hostile  intentions;  but  the  Jesuit 
Du  Thet  did  his  utmost  to  rally  the  men  to  arms, 
and  was  the  first  to  fall  a  victim.  Fifteen  of  the 
prisoners,  including  Saussaye  and  Masse,  were 
turned  adrift  in  an  open  boat ;  but  fortunately,  they 
managed  to  cross  the  bay  and  reach  the  coast  of 
Nova  Scotia,  where  they  met  with  some  trading 
vessels  belonging  to  St.  Malo.  Father  Biard  and 
the  others  were  taken  to  Virginia  by  Argall.  Biard 
subsequently  reached  England,  and  was  allowed  to 
return  home.  All  the  rest  of  the  prisoners  taken  at 
St.  Sauveur  also  found  their  way  to  France. 

But  how  prospered  the  fortunes  of  Poutrincourt 


THE   FRENCH  OCCUPATION  OF  ACADIA.        6$ 

whilst  the  fate  of  Port  Royal  was  hanging  in  the 
scale  ?  As  we  have  previously  stated,  he  had  been 
put  into  prison  by  his  creditors,  and  had  there  lain 
ill  for  some  months.  When  he  was  at  last  liberated, 
and  appeared  once  more  among  his  friends  he  suc- 
ceeded in  obtaining  some  assistance,  and  fitting  out 
a  small  vessel,  with  a  limited  supply  of  stores  for  his 
colony.  In  the  spring  of  1614  he  entered  the  basin 
of  Annapolis  for  the  last  time,  to  find  his  son  and 
followers  wanderers  in  the  woods,  and  only  piles  of 
ashes  marking  the  site  of  the  buildings  on  which  he 
and  his  friends  had  expended  so  much  time  and 
money.  The  fate  of  Port  Royal  may  be  very  briefly 
told.  The  Governor  of  Virginia,  Sir  Thomas  Dale, 
was  exceedingly  irate  when  he  heard  of  the  encroach- 
ments of  France  on  what  he  considered  to  be  British 
territory  by  right  of  prior  discovery — that  of  John 
Cabot — and  immediately  sent  Argall,  after  his  return 
from  St.  Sauveur,  on  an  expedition  to  the  north- 
ward. Argall  first  touched  at  St.  Sauveur,  and  com- 
pleted the  work  of  destruction,  and  next  stopped  at 
St.  Croix,  where  he  also  destroyed  the  deserted 
buildings.  To  such  an  extent  did  he  show  his 
enmity,  that  he  even  erased  the  flv  'ir-de-lis  and  the 
initial  of  De  Monts  and  others  from  the  massive 
stone  on  which  they  had  been  carved.  Biencourt 
and  nearly  all  the  inmates  of  the  fort  w^ere  absent 
some  distance  in  the  country,  and  returned  to  see 
the  English  in  complete  possession. 

The  destruction  of  Port  Royal  by  Argall  ends  the 
first  period  in  the  history  of  Acadia  as  a  French  col- 
ony.   Poutrincourt  bowed  to  the  relentless  fate  that 


66  THE   STORY  OF  CANADA, 

drove  him  from  the  shores  he  loved  so  well,  and 
returned  to  France,  where  he  took  employment  in 
the  service  of  the  king.  Two  years  later  he  was 
killed  at  the  siege  of  Meri  on  the  upper  Seine,  dur- 
ing the  civil  war  which  followed  the  successful  in- 
trigues of  Marie  de'  Medici  with  Spain,  to  marry  the 
boy  king,  Louis  XIII.,  to  Anne  of  Austria,  and  his 
sister,  the  Princess  Elisabeth,  to  a  Spanish  prince. 
On  his  tomb  at  St.  Just,  in  Champagne,  there  was 
inscribed  an  elaborate  Latin  epitaph,  of  which  the 
following  is  a  translation  : 

"Ye  people  so  dear  to  God, 

inhabitants  of  New  France, 

whom  I  brought  over  to  the 
Faith  of  Christ.     I  am  Poutrincourt,  your 
great  chief,  in  whom  was  once  your  hope. 
If    envy    deceived    you,    mourn    for    me. 
My  courage   destroyed   me.      I   could  not 

hand   to  another  the  glory 

that    I    won     among    you. 

Cease  not  to  mourn  for  me. 

Port  Royal,  in  later  years,  arose  from  its  ashes, 
and  the  fleur-de-lis,  or  the  red  cross,  floated  from  its 
walls,  according  as  the  French  or  the  English  were 
the  victors  in  the  long  struggle  that  ensued  for  the 
possession  of  Acadia.  But  before  we  continue  the 
story  of  its  varying  fortune  in  later  times,  we  must 
proceed  to  the  banks  of  the  St.  Lawrence,  where  the 
French  had  laid  the  foundation  of  Quebec  and  New 
France  in  the  great  valley,  while  Poutrincourt  was 
struggling  vainly  to  make  a  new  home  for  himself 
and  family  by  the  side  of  the  river  of  Port  Royal. 


J 


VI. 


SAMUEL  CHAMPLAIN   IN   THE   VALLEY   OF   THE   ST. 

LAWRENXE. 


(1608-1635.) 

When  Samuel  Champlain  entered  the  St.  Law- 
rence River  for  the  second  time,  in  1608,  after  his 
three  years'  explorations  in  Acadia,  and  laid  the 
foundation  of  the  present  city  of  Quebec,  the  only 
Europeans  on  the  Atlantic  coast  of  America  were  a 
few  Spaniards  at  St.  Augustine,  and  a  few  English- 
men at  Jamestown.  The  first  attempt  of  the  En- 
glish, under  the  inspiration  of  the  great  Ralegh,  to 
establish  a  colony  in  the  fine  country  to  the  north  of 
Spanish  Florida,  then  known  as  Virginia;  is  only 
remembered  for  the  mystery  which  must  always 
surround  the  fate  of  Virginia  Dare  and  the  little 
band  of  colonists  who  were  left  on  the  island  of 
Roanoke.  Adventurous  Englishmen,  Gosnold, 
Pring,  and  Weymouth,  had  even  explored  the  coast 
of  the  present  United  States  as  far  as  the  Kennebec 
before  the  voyages  of  Champlain  and  Poutrincourt, 
and  the  first  is  said  to  have  given  the  name  of  Cape 

67 


68  THE   STORY  OF  CANADA, 

Cod  to  the  point  named  Malebarrc  by  the  French. 
It  was  not,  however,  until  1607  that  Captain  New- 
port, representing  the  great  company  of  Virginia,  to 
whom  King  James  II.  gave  a  charter  covering  the 
territory  of  an  empire,  brought  the  first  permanent 
EngHsh  colony  of  one  hundred  persons  up  the 
James  River  in  Chesapeake  Bay. 

From  this  time  forward  FVance  and  England  be- 
came rivals  in  America.  In  the  first  years  of  the 
seventeenth  century  were  laid  the  foundations  not 
only  of  the  Old  Dominion  of  Virginia,  which  was  in 
later  times  to  form  so  important  a  state  among  the 
American  commonwealths,  but  also  of  the  New 
Dominion  whose  history  may  be  said  to  commence 
on  the  shores  of  Port  Royal.  But  Acadia  was  not 
destined  to  be  the  great  colony  of  France — the  cen- 
tre of  her  imperial  aspirations  in  America.  The 
story  of  the  French  in  Acadia,  from  the  days  of  De 
Monts  and  Poutrincourt,  until  the  beginning  of  the 
eighteenth  century  when  it  became  an  English  pos- 
session, is  at  most  only  a  series  of  relatively  unim- 
portant episodes  in  the  history  of  that  scheme  of 
conquest  w^hich  was  planned  in  the  eighteenth 
century  in  the  palace  of  Versailles  and  in  the  old 
castle  of  St.  Louis  on  the  heights  of  Quebec,  whose 
interesting  story  I  must  now  tell. 

When  Champlain  returned  to  France  in  1607  De 
Monts  obtained  from  Henry  the  F'ourth  a  monop- 
oly of  the  Canadian  fur-trade  for  a  year,  and  imme- 
diately fitted  out  two  vessels,  one  of  which  was  given 
to  Pontgrav^,  who  had  taken  part  in  previous  expe- 
ditions to  the  new  world,    Champlain  was  appointed 


69 


70  THE  STOKY  OF  CANADA, 

by  De  Monts  as  his  representative,  and  practically 
held  the  position  of  lieutenant-f^overnor  under  dif- 
ferent viceroys,  with  all  necessary  executive  and 
judicial  powers,  from  this  time  until  his  death, 
twenty-seven  years  later. 

Champlain  arrived  on  the  3rd  of  July  off  the 
promontory  of  Quebec,  which  has  ever  since  borne 
the  name  given  to  it  by  the  Algonquin  tribes,  in 
whose  language  Kchcc  means  such  a  strait  or  narrow- 
ing of  a  river  as  actually  occurs  at  this  part  of  the 
St.  Lawrence.  The  French  pioneers  began  at  once 
to  clear  away  the  trees  and  dig  cellars  on  an  accessi- 
ble point  of  land  which  is  now  the  site  of  Champlain 
market  in  what  is  called  **  the  lower  town  "  of  the 
modern  city.  Champlain  has  left  us  a  sketch  of  the 
buildings  he  erected — liahitation  as  he  calls  them — 
and  my  readers  will  get  from  the  illustration  oppo- 
site an  idea  of  the  plan  he  followed.  Champlain 
made  one  of  the  buildings  his  headquarters  for 
twelve  years,  until  he  built  a  fort  on  the  heights, 
which  was  the  beginning  of  that  famous  Fort  and 
Castle  of  St.  Louis  to  which  reference  is  so  con- 
stantly made  in  the  histories  of  New  France. 

Champlain  was  obliged  immediately  after  his 
arrival  at  Quebec  to  punish  some  conspirators  who 
had  agreed  to  murder  him  and  hand  over  the  prop- 
erty of  the  post  to  the  Basque  fishermen  frequenting 
Tadousac.  The  leader,  Jean  du  Val,  w^as  hanged 
after  a  fair  trial  and  three  of  his  accomplices  sent  to 
France,  where  they  expiated  their  crime  in  the  gal- 
leys. Great  explorers  had  in  those  days  to  run  such 
risks  among  their  followers  and  crews,  not  affected 


S/1 M I  'EL   CIIAMPI.A  IN. 


7t 


by  their  own  enthusiasm.  Onlv  three  years  later  a 
famous  sailor  and  discoverer  of  new  seas  and  hinds, 
was  left  to  die  among  the  waste  of  waters  which  ever 
since  have  recalled  the  name  of  Henry  Hudson, 


HABITATION   DE    QUEHEC,    FROM    CHAMPLAIN  S    SKETCH. 

Key  to  illustration  :  A,  Storehouse  ;  B,  Dovecote  ;  C,  Workmen's  lodgings  and 
armoury  ;  D,  Lodgings  for  mechanics  ;  E,  Dial ;  F,  Blacksmith's  shop  and  work- 
men's lodgings*  G,  Galleries*  H,  Champlain's  residence;  I,  Gate  and  draw- 
bridge ;  L,  Walk  ;  M,  Moat;  N,  Platform  for  cannon  ;  O,  Garden  ;  P,  Kitchen  ; 
P,  Vacant  space;  R,  St.  Lawrence. 

During  the  summer  of  1609  Champlain  decided  to 
join  an  expedition  of  the  Algonquin  and  Huron 
Indians  of  Canada  against  the  Iroquois,  whose  coun- 
try lay  between  the  Hudson  and  Genesee  rivers  and 
westward  of  a  beautiful  lake  which  he  found  could 
be  reached  by  the  river,  then  known  as  the  River  of 


72  THE  STORY  OF  CANADA. 

the  Iroquois — because  it  was  their  highway  to  the 
St.  Lawrence — and  now  called  the  Richelieu. 

Canada  was  to  pay  most  dearly  in  later  years,  as 
these  pages  will  show,  for  the  alliance  Champlain 
madr  with  the  inveterate  enemies  of  the  ablest  and 
bravest  Indians  of  North  America.  Nowhere  in 
his  own  narrative  of  his  doings  in  the  colony  does 
he  give  us  an  inkling  of  the  motives  that  influenced 
him.  We  may,  however,  fairly  believe  that  he 
underrated  the  strength  and  warlike  qualities  of  the 
Iroquois,  and  believed  that  the  allied  nations  of 
Canada  would  sooner  or  later,  with  his  assistance, 
win  the  victory.  If  he  had  shown  any  hesitation  to 
ally  himself  with  the  Indians  of  Canada,  he  might 
have  hazarded  the  fortunes,  and  even  ruined  the  fur- 
trade  which  was  the  sole  basis  of  the  little  colony's 
existence  for  many  years.  The  dominating  purpose 
of  his  life  in  Canada,  it  is  necessary  to  remember, 
was  the  exploration  of  the  unknown  region  to  which 
the  rivers  and  lakes  of  Canada  led,  and  that  could 
never  have  been  attempted,  had  he  by  any  cold  or 
unsympathetic  conduct  alienated  the  Indians  who 
guarded  the  waterways  over  which  he  had  to  pass 
before  he  could  unveil  the  mysteries  of  the  western 
wilderness. 

In  the  month  of  June  Champlain  and  several 
Frenchmen  commenced  their  ascent  of  the  Richelieu 
in  a  large  boat,  in  company  with  several  bark  canoes 
filled  with  sixty  Canadian  Indians.  When  they 
reached  the  rapids  near  the  lovely  basin  of  Chambly 
— named  after  a  French  officer  and  seignior  in  later 
times — the  French  boat  could  not  be  taken  any  fur- 


SAMUEL   CHAMPLAIN,  ^J 

ther.  It  was  sent  back  to  Quebec  while  Champlain 
and  two  others,  armed  with  the  arquebus,  a  short 
gun  with  a  matchlock,  followed  the  Indians  through 
the  woods  to  avoid  this  dangerous  part  of  the  river. 
The  party  soon  reached  the  safe  waters  of  the  Rich- 
elieu and  embarked  once  more  in  their  canoes.  For 
the  first  time  Champlain  had  abundant  opportunities 
to  note  the  customs  of  the  Indians  on  a  war-path, 
their  appeals  to  evil  spirits  to  help  them  against  their 
enemies,  their  faith  in  dreams,  and  their  methods  of 
marching  in  a  hostile  country.  The  party  passed 
into  the  beautiful  lake  which  has  ever  since  that  day 
borne  the  great  Frenchman's  name;  they  saw  its 
numerous  islets,  the  Adirondacks  in  the  west,  and 
the  Green  Mountains  in  the  east.  Paddling  cau- 
tiously for  some  nights  along  the  western  shore,  they 
reached  at  last  on  the  evening  of  the  29th  of  July  a 
point  of  land,  identified  in  later  days  as  the  site  of 
Ticonderoga,  so  celebrated  in  the  military  annals  of 
America.  Here  they  found  a  party  of  Iroquois,  who 
received  them  with  shouts  of  defiance,  but  retreated 
to  the  woods  for  the  night  with  the  understanding 
on  both  sides  that  the  fight  would  take  place  as 
soon  as  the  sun  rose  next  morning.  The  allies  re- 
mained in  their  canoes,  dancing,  singing,  and  hurling 
insults  at  their  foes,  who  did  not  fail  to  respond  with 
similar  demonstrations. 

Next  morning,  two  hundred  stalwart  Iroquois 
warriors,  led  by  three  chiefs  with  conspicuous  plumes, 
marched  from  their  barricade  of  logs  and  were  met 
by  the  Canadian  Indians.  Champlain  immediately 
fired  on  the  chiefs  with  such  success  that  two  of 


74  ^'/^'^'   Sl'OKY  OF  CANADA. 

them  fell  dead  and  the  other  was  wounded  and  died 
later.  "  Our  Indians,"  writes  Champlain,  "shouted 
triumphantly,  and  then  the  arrows  began  to  fly  furi- 
ously from  both  parties.  The  Iroquois  were  clearly 
amazed  that  two  chiefs  should  have  been  so  suddenly 
killed  although  they  were  protected  from  arrows  by 
a  sort  of  armour  made  of  strong  twigs  and  filled  with 
cotton.  While  I  was  reloading,  one  of  my  men, 
who  was  not  seen  by  the  enemy,  fired  a  shot  from 
the  woods  and  so  frightened  the  Iroquois,  no  longer 
led  by  their  chiefs,  that  they  lost  courage  and  fled 
precipitately  into  the  forest,  wdiere  we  followed  and 
succeeded  in  killing  a  number  and  taking  ten  or 
twelve  prisoners.  On  our  side  only  ten  or  fifteen 
were  wounded,  and  they  very  soon  recovered." 

On  their  return  to  the  St.  Lawrence,  the  Indians 
gave  Champlain  an  illustration  of  their  cruelty 
towards  their  captives.  When  they  had  harangued 
the  Iroquois  and  narrated  some  of  the  tortures  that 
his  nation  had  inflicted  on  the  Canadians  in  previous 
times,  he  was  told  to  sing,  and  when  he  did  so,  as 
Champlain  naively  says,  * '  the  song  was  sad  to  hear, 

A  fire  was  lit,  and  when  it  was  very  hot,  the  In- 
dians seized  a  burning  brand  and  applied  it  to  the 
naked  body  of  their  victim,  who  was  tied  to  a  tree. 
Sometimes  they  poured  water  on  his  wounds,  tore 
off  his  nails,  and  poured  hot  gum  on  his  head  from 
which  they  had  cut  the  scalp.  They  opened  his 
arm  near  the  wrists,  and  pulled  at  his  tendons  and 
when  they  would  not  come  off,  they  used  their 
knives.  The  poor  wretch  was  forced  to  cry  out  now 
and  then  in  his  agony,  and  it  made  Champlain  heart- 


SAMUEL   CHAM  PLAIN,  J^ 

sick  to  sec  him  so  maltreated,  but  generally  he  ex- 
hibited so  much  courage  and  stoicism  that  he  seemed 
as  if  he  were  not  suffering  at  all.  Champlain  remon- 
strated with  them,  and  was  a^^  last  allowed  to  put  a 
speedy  end  to  the  sufferings  of  the  unhappy  warrior. 
But  even  when  he  was  dead,  they  cut  the  body  into 
pieces  and  attempted  to  make  the  brother  of  the 
victim  swallow  his  heart.  Champlain  might  well  say 
that  it  was  better  for  an  Indian  to  die  on  the  battle- 
field or  kill  himself  when  wounded,  than  fall  into  the 
hands  of  such  merciless  enemies. 

Soon  after  this  memorable  episode  in  the  history 
of  Canada,  Champlain  crossed  the  ocean  to  consult 
De  Monts,  who  could  not  persuade  the  king  and  his 
minister  to  grant  him  a  renewal  of  his  charter.  The 
merchants  of  the  seaboard  had  combined  to  repre- 
sent the  injury  the  trade  of  the  kingdom  would  sus- 
tain by  continuing  a  monopoly  of  Canadian  furs. 
De  Monts,  however,  made  the  best  arrangements  he 
could  under  such  unfavourable  conditions,  and 
Champlain  returned  to  the  St.  Lawrence  in  the 
spring  of  i6io.  During  the  summer  he  assisted  the 
Canadian  allies  in  a  successful  assault  on  a  large 
body  of  the  Iroquois  who  had  raised  a  fortification 
at  the  mouth  of  the  Richelieu,  and  all  of  whom  were 
killed.  It  was  on  this  occasion,  when  a  large  num- 
ber of  Canadian  nations  were  assembled,  that  he 
commenced  the  useful  experiment  of  sending 
Frenchmen  into  the  Ottawa  valley  to  learn  the  cus- 
toms and  language  of  the  natives,  and  act  as  inter- 
preters afterwards. 

The  French  at  Quebec  heard  of  the  assassination 


>](>  The  story  of  Canada, 

of  Henry  the  Fourth  who  had  been  a  friend  of  the 
colony.  Champlain  went  to  France  in  the  autumn 
of  1610,  and  returned  to  Canada  in  the  following 
spring.  In  the  course  of  the  summer  he  passed 
some  days  on  the  island  of  Mont  Royal  where  he 
proposed  establishing  a  post  where  the  allied  nations 
could  meet  for  purposes  of  trade  and  consultation, 
as  he  told  the  Ottawa  Indians  at  a  later  time  when 
he  was  in  their  country.  He  made  a  clearing  on  a 
little  point  to  which  he  gave  the  name  of  Place  Roy- 
ale,  now  known  as  Pointe-a-Callieres,  on  a  portion 
of  which  the  hospital  of  the  Grey  Nuns  was  subse- 
quently built.  It  was  not,  however,  until  thirty 
years  later  that  the  first  permanent  settlement  was 
made  on  the  island,  and  the  foundations  laid  of  the 
great  city  which  was  first  named  Ville-Marie. 

During  the  next  twenty-four  years  Champlain 
passed  some  months  in  France  at  different  times, 
according  to  the  exigencies  of  the  colony.  One  of 
the  most  important  changes  he  brought  about  was 
the  formation  of  a  new  commercial  association,  for 
the  purpose  of  reconciling  rival  mercantile  interests. 
To  give  strength  and  dignity  to  the  enterprise,  the 
Count  de  Soissons,  Charles  of  Bourbon,  one  of  the 
royal  sons  of  France,  was  placed  at  the  head,  but  he 
died  suddenly,  and  was  replaced  by  Prince  de  Cond^, 
Henry  of  Bourbon,  also  a  royal  prince,  best  known 
as  the  father  of  the  victor  of  Rocroy,  and  the  oppo- 
nent of  Marie  de'  Medici  during  her  intrigues  with 
Spain.  It  was  in  this  same  year  that  he  entered 
into  an  engagement  with  a  rich  Calvinist,  Nicholas 
BouU^,  to  marry  his  daughter  Helen,  then  a  child. 


SAMUEL   CHAMPLAIN,  yj 

when  she  had  arrived  at  a  suitable  age,  on  the  con- 
dition that  the  father  would  supply  funds  to  help 
the  French  in  their  Canadian  experiment.  The 
marriage  was  not  consummated  until  ten  years  later, 
and  Champlain's  wife,  whose  Christian  name  he  gave 
to  the  pretty  islet  opposite  Montreal  harbour,  spent 
four  years  in  the  settlement.  The  happiness  of  a 
domestic  life  was  not  possible  in  those  early  Cana- 
dian days,  and  a  gentle  French  girl  probably  soon 
found  herself  a  mere  luxury  amid  the  savagery  of 
her  surroundings.  Helen  Champlain  has  no  place 
in  this  narrative,  and  we  leave  her  with  the  remark 
that  she  was  converted  by  her  husband,  and  on  his 
death  retired  to  the  seclusion  of  an  Ursuline  con- 
vent in  France.  No  child  was  born  to  bear  the 
name  and  possibly  increase  the  fame  of  Champlain. 
On  his  return  to  Canada,  in  the  spring  of  1613, 
Champlain  decided  to  explore  the  western  waters  of 
Canada.  L'Escarbot,  who  published  his  "  New 
France,"  soon  after  his  return  from  Acadia,  tells  us 
that  "Champlain  promised  never  to  cease  his  efforts 
until  he  has  found  there  [in  Canada]  a  western  or 
northern  sea  opening  up  the  route  to  China  which 
so  many  have  so  far  sought  in  vain."  While  at 
Paris,  during  the  winter  of  161 2,  Champlain  saw  a 
map  which  gave  him  some  idea  of  the  great  sea 
which  Hudson  had  discovered.  At  the  same  time 
he  heard  from  a  Frenchman,  Nicholas  de  Vignau, 
who  had  come  to  Paris  direct  from  the  Ottawa  val- 
ley, that  while  among  the  Algonquin  Indians  he  had 
gone  with  a  party  to  the  north  where  they  had  found 
a  salt  water  sea,  on  whose  shores  were  the  remains 


78  THE   STORY  OF  CANADA. 

of  an  English  ship.  The  Indians  had  also,  accord- 
ing to  Vignau,  brought  back  an  English  lad,  whom 
they  intended  to  present  to  Champlain  when  he 
made  his  promised  visit  to  the  Upper  Ottawa. 

Champlain  probably  thought  he  was  at  last  to 
realise  the  dream  of  his  life.  Accompanied  by 
Vignau,  four  other  Frenchmen,  and  an  Indian  guide, 
he  ascended  the  great  river,  with  its  numerous  lakes, 
cataracts,  and  islets.  He  saw  the  beautiful  fall  to 
which  ever  since  has  been  given  the  name  of  Rideau 
— a  name  also  extended  to  the  river,  whose  waters 
make  the  descent  at  this  point — on  account  of  its 
striking  resemblance  to  a  white  curtain.  Next  he 
looked  into  the  deep  chasm  of  mist,  foam,  and  rag- 
ing waters,  which  the  Indians  called  Asticou  or 
Cauldron  (Chaudiere),  on  whose  sides  and  adjacent 
islets,  then  thickly  wooded,  now  stand  great  mills 
where  the  electric  light  flashes  amid  the  long  steel 
saws  as  they  cut  into  the  huge  pine  logs  which  the 
forests  of  the  Ottawa  yearly  contribute  to  the  com- 
merce and  wealth  of  Canada.  At  the  Chaudiere  the 
Indians  evoked  the  spirits  of  the  waters,  and  offered 
them  gifts  of  tobacco  if  they  would  ward  off  misfor- 
tune. The  expedition  then  passed  up  the  noble 
expansion  of  the  river  known  as  the  Chats,  and  saw 
other  lakes  and  cataracts  that  gave  variety  and  gran- 
deur to  the  scenery  of  the  river  of  the  Algonquins, 
as  it  was  then  called,  and  reached  at  last,  after  a 
difficult  portage,  the  country  around  Allumette  lake, 
where  Nicholas  de  Vignau  had  passed  the  previous 
winter.  Two  hundred  and  fift5^-four  years  later,  on 
an  August  day,  a  farmer  unearthed  on  this  old  por- 


S.^  M  UEL    CHA  MP  LA  IN, 


79 


tage  route  in  the  district  of  North  Renfrew,  an  old 
brass  astrolabe  of  Paris  make,  dated  1603;  the  in- 
strument used  in  those  distant  days  for  taking 
astronomical  observ^ations  and  ascertaining  the  lati- 
tude. No  doubt  it  had  belonged  to  Champlain, 
who  lost  it  on  this  very  portage  by  way  of  Muskrat 


CHAMPLAIN  S    LOST  ASTROLABE. 


and  Mud  lakes,  as  from  this  place  he  ceases  to  give 
us  the  correct  latitudes  which  he  had  previously 
been  able  to  do. 

Among  the  Algonquin  Indians  of  this  district, 
who  lived  in  rudely-built  bark  cabins  or  camps,  and 
were  hunters  as  well  as  cultivators  of  the  soil,  he 
soon  found  out  that  there  was  not  a  word  of  truth 
in  the  story  which  Nicholas  de  Vignau  had  told  him 


80  THE   STORY  OF  CANADA, 

of  a  journey  to  a  northern  sea,  but  that  it  was  the 
invention  of  "  the  most  impudent  har  whom  I  have 
seen  for  a  long  time."  Champlain  did  not  punish 
him,  though  the  Indians  urged  him  to  put  him  to 
death. 

Champlain  remained  a  few  days  among  the  In< 
dians,  making  arrangements  for  future  explorations, 
and  studying  the  customs  of  the  people.  He  was 
especially  struck  with  their  method  of  burial.  Posts 
supported  a  tablet  or  slab  of  wood  on  which  was  a 
rude  carving  supposed  to  represent  the  features  of 
the  dead.  A  plume  decorated  the  head  of  a  chief; 
his  weapons  meant  a  warrior;  a  small  bow  and  one 
arrow,  a  boy ;  a  kettle,  a  wooden  spoon,  an  iron  pot, 
and  a  paddle,  a  woman  or  girl.  These  figures  were 
painted  in  red  or  yellow.  The  dead  slept  below, 
wrapped  in  furs  and  surrounded  by  hatchets,  knives, 
or  other  treasures  which  they  might  like  to  have  in 
the  far-off  country  to  which  they  had  gone ;  for,  as 
Champlain  says,  "  they  believe  in  the  immortality 
of  the  soul." 

Champlain  made  no  attempt  to  proceed  further  up 
the  river.  Before  leaving  the  Upper  Ottawa,  he 
made  a  cedar  cross,  showing  the  arms  of  France — a 
custom  of  the  French  explorers,  as  Cartier's  narra- 
tive tells  us — and  fixed  it  on  an  elevation  by  the  side 
of  the  lake.  He  also  promised  Tessouat  to  return 
in  the  following  year  and  assist  him  against  the 
Iroquois. 

The  next  event  of  moment  in  the  history  of  the 
colony  was  the  arrival  in  1615  of  Fathers  Denis 
Jamay,  Jean  d'Olbeau,  and  Joseph  Le  Caron,  and 


SAMUEL   CHAM  PLAIN.  8 1 

the  lay  brother  Pacifique  du  Plessjs,  who  belonped 
to  the  mendicant  order  of  the  RecoUets,  or  refornied 
branch  of  the  Franciscans,  so  named  from  their  foun- 
der, St.  Francis  d' Assis\  They  built  near  the  French 
post  at  Quebec  a  little  chapel  which  was  placed  in 
charge  of  Father  Jamay  and  Brother  Du  Plessis, 
while  Jean  d'Olbeau  went  to  live  among  the  Mon- 
tagnais  and  Joseph  Le  Caron  among  the  Hurons  of 
the  West. 

During  the  summer  of  1615  Champlain  fulfilled 
his  pledge  to  accompany  the  allied  tribes  on  an  ex- 
pedition into  the  country  of  the  Iroquois.  This  was 
the  most  important  undertaking  of  Champlain's  life 
in  Canada,  not  only  on  account  of  the  length  of  the 
journey,  and  the  knowledge  he  obtained  of  the  lake 
region,  but  of  the  loss  of  prestige  he  must  have  sus- 
tained among  both  Iroquois  and  Canadian  Indians 
who  had  previously  thought  the  Frenchman  invin- 
cible. The  enemy  were  reached  not  by  the  usual 
route  of  the  Richelieu  and  Lake  Champlain,  consid- 
ered too  dangerous  from  their  neighbourhood  to  the 
Iroquois,  but  by  a  long  detour  by  way  of  the  Ottawa 
valley,  Georgian  Bay,  Lake  Simcoe,  and  the  port- 
ages, rivers,  and  lakes  that  lead  into  the  River  Trent, 
which  falls  into  the  pretty  bay  of  Quinte,  at  the 
eastern  end  of  Lake  Ontario,  whence  they  could  pass 
rapidly  into  the  country  of  the  Five  Nations. 

Accompanied  by  Stephen  Brule,  a  noted  Indian 
interpreter,  a  servant,  and  eight  Indians,  Champlain 
left  Montreal  about  the  middle  of  July,  ascended 
the  Ottaw^a,  and  paddled  down  the  Mattawa  to  the 
lake  of  the  Nipissings,  where  he  had  interviews  with 


82  THE   STORY  Or    CANADA. 

the   Indians  who  were  dreaded   by  other  tribes  as 
sorcerers. 

The  canoes  of  the  adventurous  Fren  hmen  went 
down  French  River,  and  at  hist  reached  the  waters  of 
the  great  Fresh  Water  Sea,  the  Mcr  Douce  of  Cham- 
plain's  maps,  and  now  named  Lake  Huron  in  mem- 
ory of  the  hapless  race  that  once  made  their  home 
in  that  wild  re<^ion.  Passing  by  the  western  shore 
of  the  picturescpie  district  of  Muski^ka,  the  party 
landed  at  the  foot  of  the  bay  and  found  themselves 
before  long  among  the  villages  of  the  Hurons,  whose 
country  lay  then  between  Nottawasaga  Bay  and 
Lake  Simcoe.  Here  Champlain  saw  the  triple  pali- 
sades, long  houses,  containing  several  households, 
and  other  distinctive  features  of  those  Indian  vil- 
lages, one  of  which  Cartier  found  at  the  foot  of 
Mont  Royal. 

In  the  village  of  Carhagouaha,  where  the  palisades 
were  as  high  as  thirty-five  feet,  Champlain  met 
Father  Le  Caron,  the  pioneer  of  these  intrepid  mis- 
sionaries who  led  the  way  to  the  head-waters  and 
tributaries  of  the  great  lakes.  For  the  first  time  in 
that  western  region  the  great  Roman  Catholic  cere- 
mony of  the  Mass  was  celebrated  in  the  presence  of 
Champlain  and  wondering  Indian  warriors.  At  the 
town  of  Cahiague,  the  Indian  capital,  comprising 
two  hundred  cabins,  and  situated  within  the  modern 
township  of  Orillia,  he  was  received  with  great  re- 
joicings, and  preparations  immediately  made  for  the 
expedition  against  the  Iroquois.  Stephen  Brul^ 
undertook  the  dangerous  mission  of  communicating 
with  the  Andastes,  a  friendly  nation  near  the  head- 


SAMUEL   CHAM  PLAIN. 


83 


waters  of  the  SuscjiiLhaniia,  who  had  promisjd  to 
brin^  five  hundred  warriors  to  the  assistance  of  the 
Canadian  alHed  forces. 

The  expedition  reached  the  eastern  end  of  Lake 
Ontario  at  the  beginning  of  October  by  the  circui- 
tous nnite  I  have  already  mentioned,  crossed  to  the 


ONONDAGA   FORT    IN   THE   IROQUOIS   COUNTRY  ;    FROM   CHAMPLAIN  S 

SKETCH. 

other  side  somewhere  near  Sackett's  harbour,  and 
soon  arrived  in  the  neighbourhood  of  the  Onondaga 
fort,  which  is  placed  by  the  best  authorities  a  few 
miles  to  the  south  of  Lake  Oneida.  It  was  on  the 
afternoon  of  the  loth  of  October,  when  the  woods 


84  THE   SIOKY  OF  CANADA, 

wear  their  brightest  foHagc,  that  the  allied  Indians 
commenced  the  attack  with  all  that  impetuosity 
and  imprudence  peculiar  to  savages  on  such  occa- 
sions. The  fort  was  really  a  village  protected  by 
four  concentric  rows  of  palisades,  made  up  of  pieces 
of  heavy  timber,  thirty  feet  in  height,  and  support- 
ing an  inside  gallery  or  parapet  where  the  defenders 
were  relatively  safe  from  guns  and  arrows.  The 
fort  was  by  the  side  of  a  pond  from  which  water 
was  conducted  to  gutters  under  the  control  of  the 
besieged  for  the  purpose  of  protecting  the  outer 
walls  from  fire.  Champlain  had  nine  Frenchmen 
under  his  direction— eight  of  them  having  accom- 
panied Father  Le  Caron  to  the  Huron  village.  It 
was  utterly  impossible  to  give  anything  like  method 
to  the  Indian  assaults  on  the  strong  works  of  the 
enemy.  Champlain  had  a  high  wooden  platform 
built,  and  placed  on  it  several  of  his  gunners  who 
could  fire  into  the  village,  but  the  Iroquois  kept 
well  under  cover  and  very  little  harm  was  done. 
The  attempts  to  fire  the  palisades  were  fruitless  on 
account  of  the  want  of  method  shown  by  the  attack- 
ing parties.  At  last  the  allied  Indians  became  dis- 
heartened when  they  saw  Champlain  himself  was 
wounded  and  no  impression  was  made  on  the  fort. 
They  returned  to  the  cover  of  the  woods,  and  awaited 
for  a  few  days  the  arriv^al  of  Stephen  Brule  and  the 
expected  reinforcements  of  Andastes.  But  when 
nearly  a  week  had  passed,  and  the  scouts  brought 
no  news  of  Indians  from  the  Susquehanna,  the  Ca- 
nadians determined  to  return  home  without  making 
another  attack  on  the  village.     And  here,   I  may 


si.xnrFJ.  C/MMP/..-1/X.  85 

mention,  that  Stephen  Brule  was  not  seen  at  Quebec 
until  three  years  hiter.  It  appeared  then,  from  his 
account  of  his  wanderings,  that  lie  succeeded  after 
some  vexatious  delay  in  bringing  the  Andastes  to 
Oneida  Lake  only  to  find  that  they  had  left  the 
country  of  the  Iroquois,  who  tortured  him  for  a 
while,  and  then,  pleased  with  his  spirit,  desisted, 
and  eventually  gave  him  his  liberty.  He  is  reported 
to  have  reached  in  his  wanderin<rs  the  neighbourhood 
of  Lake  Superior,  where  he  found  copper,  but  we 
have  no  satisfactory  information  on  this  point.* 

On  their  return  to  Canada,  the  Indians  carried 
Champlain  and  other  wounded  men  in  baskets  made 
of  withes.  They  reached  the  Huron  villages  on  the 
20th  of  December  after  a  long  and  wearisome  jour- 
ney. Champlain  remained  in  their  country  for  four 
months,  making  himself  acquainted  with  their  cus- 
toms and  the  nature  of  the  region,  of  which  he  has 
given  a  graphic  description.  Towards  the  last  of 
April,  Champlain  left  the  Huron  'llages,  and  arrived 
at  Quebec  near  the  end  of  June,  to  the  great  delight 
of  his  little  colony,  who  were  in  doubt  of  his  ever 
coming  back. 

Another  important  event  in  the  history  of  those 
days  was  the  coming  into  the  country  of  several 
Jesuit  missionaries  in  1625,  when  the  Duke  of  Ven- 
tadour,  a  staunch  friend  of  the  order,  was  made 
viceroy  of  the  colony  in  place  of  the  Duke  of  Mont- 
morency, who  had  purchased  the  rights  of  the 
Prince  of  Conde  when  he  was  imprisoned    in   the 

*  Brule  was  murdered  by  the   Hurons  in    1634  at  Toanche,  an 
Indian  village  in  the  West. 


86  THE   STONY  OF  CAXADA, 

Hastilc  for  having  taken  up  arms  aj^ainst  the  King. 
These  Jesuit  missionaries,  Charles  Lalemant,  who 
was  the  first  superior  in  Canada,  Jean  de  Hrebeuf, 
KniUMnond  Mass6,  the  |)riest  who  had  been  in  Acadia, 
I'ranc^ois  Cliarton,  and  Gilbert  Huret,  the  two  latter 
lay  brothers,  were  received  very  coldly  by  the  offi- 
cials of  Quebec,  whose  business  interests  were  at 
that  time  managed  by  the  Huguenots,  William  and 
Emeric  Caen.  They  were,  however,  received  by 
the  Recollets,  who  had  removed  to  a  convent, 
Notre-Dame  des  Anges,  which  they  had  built  by 
the  St.  Charles,  of  sufficient  strength  to  resist  an 
attack  which,  it  is  reported  on  sufficiently  good 
authority,  the  Iroquois  made  in  1622.  The  first 
Jesuit  establishment  was  built  in  1625  on  the  point 
at  the  meeting  of  the  Lairet  and  St.  Charles,  where 
Cartier  had  made  his  little  fort  ninety  years  before. 
We  come  now  to  a  critical  point  in  the  fortunes 
of  the  poor  and  struggling  colony.  The  ruling  spirit 
of  France,  Cardinal  Richelieu,  at  last  intervened  in 
Canadian  affairs,  and  formed  the  Company  of  New 
France,  generally  called  the  company  of  the  Hun- 
dred Associates,  who  received  a  perpetual  monopoly 
of  the  fur-trade,  and  a  control  of  all  other  commerce 
for  sixteen  years,  beside  dominion  over  an  immense 
territory  extending  from  Florida  to  the  Arctic  Seas, 
and  from  the  Gulf  of  St.  Lawrence  to  the  great 
Fresh  Water  Sea,  the  extent  of  which  was  not  yet 
known.  Richelieu  placed  himself  at  the  head  of  the 
enterprise.  No  Huguenot  thenceforth  was  to  be 
allowed  to  enter  the  colony  under  any  conditions. 
The  company  was  bound  to  send  out  immediately  a 


Samuel  ciiamplaix,  87 

number  of  labourers  and  mechanics,  with  all  their 
necessary  tools,  to  the  St.  Lawrence,  and  four 
thousand  other  colonists  in  the  course  of  fifteen 
years,  and  to  support  them  for  three  years.  Not 
only  was  the  new  association  a  ^reat  commercial 
corporation,  but  it  was  a  feudal  lord  as  well. 
Richelieu  introduced  in  a  modified  form  the 
old  feudal  tenure  of  France,  with  the  object  of 
creating  a  Canadian  noblesse  and  encouraging  men 
of  good  birth  and  means  to  emigrate  and  develop 
the  resources  of  the  country.  This  was  the  begin- 
ning of  that  seigniorial  tenure  which  lasted  for  two 
centuries  and  a  quarter. 

Champlain  was  re-appointed  lieutenant-governor 
and  had  every  reason  to  believe  that  at  last  a  new 
spirit  would  be  infused  into  the  affairs  of  the  colony. 
Fate,  however,  was  preparing  for  him  a  cruel  blow. 
In  the  spring  of  1628,  the  half-starved  men  of  Que- 
bec were  anxiously  looking  for  the  provisions  and 
men  expected  from  France,  when  they  were  dis- 
mayed by  the  news  that  an  English  fleet  was  off  the 
Saguenay.  This  disheartening  report  was  immedi- 
ately followed  by  a  message  to  surrender  the  fort  of 
Quebec  to  the  English  admiral,  David  Kirk.  War 
had  been  decla  .^d  between  England  and  France, 
through  the  scheming  chiefly  of  Buckingham,  the 
rash  favourite  of  Charles  the  First,  and  an  intense 
hater  of  the  French  King  for  whose  queen,  Anne  of 
Austria,  he  had  developed  an  ardent  and  unrequited 
passion.  English  settlements  were  by  this  time 
established  on  Massachusetts  Bay  and  England  was 
ambitious  of  extending  her  dominion  over  North 


^B  THE   STORY  OF  CANAbA. 

America,  even  in  those  countries  where  France  had 
preceded  her. 

Admiral  Kirk,  who  was  the  son  of  a  gentleman  in 
Derbyshire,  and  one  of  the  pioneers  of  the  colonisa- 
tion of  Newfoundland,  did  not  attempt  the  taking 
of  Quebec  in  1628,  as  he  was  quite  satisfied  with  the 
capture  off  the  Saguenay,  of  a  French  expedition, 
consisting  of  four  armed  vessels  and  eighteen  trans- 
ports, under  the  command  of  Claude  de  Roquemont, 
who  had  been  sent  by  the  new  company  to  relieve 
Quebec.  Next  year,  however,  in  July,  he  brought 
his  fleet  again  to  the  Saguenay,  and  sent  three  ships 
to  Quebec  under  his  brothers,  Lewis  and  Thomas. 
Champlain  immediately  surrendered,  as  his  little 
garrison  were  half-starved  and  incapable  of  making 
any  resistance,  and  the  English  flag  floated  for  the 
first  time  on  the  fort  of  St.  Louis.  Champlain  and 
his  companions,  excepting  thirteen  who  remained 
with  the  English,  went  on  board  the  English  ships, 
and  Lewis  Kirk  was  left  in  charge  of  Quebec.  On 
the  way  dovyn  the  river,  the  English  ships  met  a 
French  vessel  off  Malbaie,  under  the  command  of 
Emeric  Caen,  and  after  a  hot  fight  she  became  also 
an  English  prize. 

When  the  fleet  arrived  in  the  harbour  of  Ply- 
mouth, the  English  Admiral  heard  to  his  amazement 
that  peace  had  been  declared  some  time  before,  and 
that  all  conquests  made  by  the  fleets  or  armies  of 
either  France  or  England  after  24th  April,  1629, 
must  be  restored.  The  Kirks  and  Alexander  used 
every  possible  exertion  to  prevent  the  restoration  of 
Quebec  and  Port  Royal,  which  was  also  in  the  pos- 


Samuel  ci/AAfPLAiN.  ^9 

session  of  the  Engl'^-h.  Three  years  elapsed  before 
Champlain  obtained  a  restitution  of  his  property, 
which  had  been  illegally  seized.  The  King  of 
England,  Charles  I.,  had  not  only  renewed  a  char- 
ter, which  his  father  had  given  to  a  favourite,  Sir 
William  Alexander,  of  the  present  province  of  Nova 
Scotia,  then  a  part  of  Acadia,  but  had  also  extended 
it  to  the  *'  county  and  lordship  of  Canada."  Under 
these  circumstances  Charles  delayed  the  negotiations 
for  peace  by  every  possible  subterfuge.  At  last  the 
French  King,  whose  sister  was  married  to  Charles, 
agreed  to  pay  the  large  sum  of  money  which  was 
still  owing  to  the  latter  as  the  balance  of  the  dower 
of  his  queen.  Charles  had  already  commenced  that 
fight  with  his  Commons,  which  was  not  to  end  until 
his  head  fell  on  the  block,  and  was  most  anxious  to 
get  money  wherev^er  and  as  soon  as  he  could.  The 
result  was  the  treaty  of  St.  Germain-en-Laye,  signed 
on  March  29,  1632.  Quebec  as  well  as  Port  Royal 
— to  whose  history  I  shall  refer  in  the  following 
chapter — v/ere  restored  to  France,  and  Champlain 
v/as  again  in  his  fort  on  Cape  Diamond  in  the  last 
week  of  May,  1633.  A  number  of  Jesuits,  who  were 
favoured  by  Richelieu,  accompanied  him  and  hence- 
forth took  the  place  of  the  RecoUets  in  the  mission 
work  of  the  colony.  In  1634,  there  were  altogether 
eight  Jesuit  priests  in  the  country.  They  appear  to 
have  even  borrowed  the  name  of  the  Recollet  con- 
vent, Notre  Dame  des  Anges,  and  given  it  to  their 
ow^n  establishment  and  seigniory  by  the  St.  Charles. 
During  the  last  three  years  of  Champlain's  life  in 
Canada  no  events    of    importance  occurred.     The 


9<5  The  story  of  Canada. 

Company  of  the  Hundred  Associates  had  been  most 
seriously  crippled  by  the  capture  of  the  expedition 
in  1628,  and  were  not  able  to  do  very  much  for  the 
colony.  The  indefatigable  lieutenant-governor,  true 
to  his  trust,  succeeded  in  building  a  little  fort  in  1634 
at  the  mouth  of  the  St.  Maurice,  and  founded  the 
present  city  of  Three  Rivers,  as  a  bulwark  against 
the  Iroquois.  It  had,  however,  been  for  years  a 
trading  place,  where  Brother  Du  Plessis  spent  some 
time  in  instructing  the  Indian  children  and  people  in 
the  Catholic  religion,  and  vyas  instrumental  in  pre- 
venting a  rising  of  the  Montagnais  Indians  who  had 
become  discontented  and  proposed  to  destroy  the 
French  settlements. 

On  Christmas  Day,  1635,  Champlain  died  from  a 
paralytic  stroke  in  the  fort,  dominating  the  great 
river  by  whose  banks  he  had  toiled  and  struggled  for 
so  many  years  as  a  faithful  servant  of  his  king  and 
country.  Father  Le  Jeune  pronounced  the  eulogy 
over  his  grave,  the  exact  site  of  which  is  even  now  a 
matter  of  dispute. 

What  had  the  patient  and  courageous  Frenchman 
of  Brouage  accomplished  during  the  years — nearly 
three  decades — since  he  landed  at  the  foot  of  Cape 
Diamond  ?  On  the  verge  of  the  heights  a  little  fort 
of  logs  and  a  chateau  of  masonry,  a  few  clumsy  and 
wretched  buildings  on  the  point  below,  a  cottage 
and  clearing  of  the  first  Canadian  farmer  Hebert, 
the  ruins  of  the  RecoUet  convent  and  the  mission 
house  of  the  Jesuits  on  the  St.  Charles,  the  chapel 
of  Notre-Dame  de  Recouvrance,  which  he  had  built 
close  to  the  fort  to  commemorate  the  restoration  of 


SAMUEL   CHAMPLAIM.  9I 

Quebec  to  the  French,  the  stone  manor-house  of 
the  first  seignior  of  Canada,  Robert  Giffard  of  Beau- 
port,  a  post  at  Tadousac  and  another  at  Three 
Rivers,  perhaps  two  hundred  Frenchmen  in  the 
whole  valley.  These  were  the  only  visible  signs  of 
French  dominion  on  the  banks  of  the  St.  Lawrence, 
when  the  cold  blasts  of  winter  sighed  Champlain's 
requiem  on  the  heights  whence  his  fancy  had  so 
often  carried  him  to  Cathay.  The  results  look  small 
when  we  think  of  the  patience  and  energy  shown  by 
the  great  man  whose  aspirations  took  so  ambitious 
and  hopeful  a  range.  It  is  evident  by  the  last  map 
he  drew  of  the  country,  that  he  had  some  idea  of 
the  existence  of  a  great  lake  beyond  Lake  Huron, 
and  of  the  Niagara  Falls,  though  he  had  seen 
neither.  He  died,  however,  ignorant  of  the  magni- 
tude, number,  and  position  of  the  western  lakes,  and 
still  deluded  by  visions,  as  others  after  him,  of  a 
road  to  Asia.  No  one,  however,  will  deny  that  he 
was  made  of  the  heroic  mould  from  which  come 
founders  of  states,  and  the  Jesuit  historian  Charle- 
voix has,  with  poetic  justice,  called  him  the 
* '  Father  of  New  France. ' ' 


VII. 


GENTLEMEN-ADVENTURERS   IN  ACADIA. 


(1614-1677.) 


We  must  now  leave  the  lonely  Canadian  colonists 
on  the  snow-clad  heights  of  Quebec  to  mourn  the 
death  of  their  great  leader,  and  return  to  the  shores 
of  Acadia  to  follow  the  fortunes  of  Biencourt  and 
his  companions  whom  we  last  saw  near  the  smoking 
ruins  of  their  homes  on  the  banks  of  the  Annapolis. 
We  have  now  come  to  a  strange  chapter  of  Canadian 
history,  which  has  its  picturesque  aspect  as  well  as 
its  episodes  of  meanness,  cupidity,  and  inhumanity. 
As  we  look  back  to  those  early  years  of  Acadian 
history,  we  see  rival  chiefs  with  their  bands  of 
retainers  engaged  in  deadly  feuds,  and  storming  each 
other's  fortified  posts  as  though  they  were  the  cas- 
tles of  barons  living  in  mediaeval  times.  We  see 
savage  Micmacs  and  Etchemins  of  Acadia,  only  too 
willing  to  aid  in  the  quarrels  and  contests  of  the 
white  men  who  hate  each  with  a  malignity  that 
even  the  Indian  cannot  excel ;  cloi^ely  shorn,  ill-clad 
mendicant  friars  who  see  only  good  in  those  who 

92 


GENTLEMEN-ADVEN TURERS  IN  ACADIA.        93 

help  their  missions;  grave  and  cautious  Puritans  try- 
ing to  find  their  advantage  in  the  rivalry  of  their 
French  neighbours;  a  Scotch  nobleman  and  courtier 
who  would  be  a  king  in  Acadia  as  well  as  a  poet  in 
England  ;  Frenchmen  who  claim  to  have  noble  blood 
in  their  veins,  and  wish  to  be  lords  of  a  wide  Ameri- 
can domain;  a  courageous  wife  who  lays  aside  the 
gentleness  of  a  woman's  nature  and  fights  as  bravely 
as  any  knight  for  the  protection  of  her  home  and 
what  she  believes  to  be  her  husband's  rights.  These 
are  among  the  figures  that  we  see  passing  through 
the  shadowy  vista  which  opens  before  us  as  we  look 
into  the  depths  of  the  Acadian  wilderness  two  cen- 
turies and  a  half  ago. 

Among  the  French  adventurers,  whose  names  are 
intimately  associated  with  the  early  history  of 
Acadia,  no  one  occupies  a  more  prominent  position 
than  Charles  de  St.  Etienne,  the  son  of  a  Huguenot, 
Claude  de  la  Tour,  who  claimed  to  be  of  noble  birth. 
The  La  Tours  had  become  so  poor  that  they  were 
forced,  like  so  many  other  nobles  of  those  times,  to 
seek  their  fortune  in  the  new  world.  Claude  and  his 
son,  then  probably  fourteen  years  of  age,  came  to 
Port  Royal  with  Poutrincourt  in  1610.  In  the  vari- 
ous vicissitudes  of  the  little  settlement  the  father 
and  his  son  participated,  and  after  it  had  been  de- 
stroyed by  Argall,  they  remained  with  Biencourt 
and  his  companions.  In  the  course  of  time,  the 
elder  La  Tour  established  a  trading  post  on  the 
peninsula  at  the  mouth  of  the  Penobscot — in  Aca- 
dian history  a  prominent  place,  as  often  in  posses- 
sion of  the  English  as  the  French. 


94  THE   STORY  OF  CANADA. 

Biencourt  and  his  companions  appear  to  have  had 
some  accessions  to  their  number  during  the  years 
that  followed  the  Virginian's  visit.  They  built  rude 
cabins  on  the  banks  of  the  Annapolis,  and  cultivated 
patches  of  ground  after  a  fashion,  beside  raising  a 
fort  of  logs  and  earth  near  Cape  Sable,  called  in- 
differently Fort  Louis  or  Lomeron.  It  has  been 
generally  believed  that  Biencourt  died  in  Acadia 
about  1623,  after  making  over  all  his  rights  to 
Charles  La  Tour,  who  was  his  personal  friend  and 
follower  from  his  boyhood.  Recently,  however,  the 
discovery  of  some  old  documents  in  Paris  throws 
some  doubt  on  the  generally  accepted  statement  of 
the  place  of  his  death.* 

It  is  quite  certain,  however,  whether  Biencourt 
died  in  France  or  Acadia,  young  La  Tour  assumed 
after  1623  the  control  of  Fort  St.  Louis  and  all  other 
property  previously  held  by  the  former.  In  1626 
the  elder  La  Tour  was  driven  from  the  Penobscot  by 
English  traders  from  Plymouth  who  took  possession 
of  the  fort  and  held  it  for  some  years.  He  now  rec- 
ognised the  urgent  necessity  of  having  his  position 
in  Acadia  ratified  and  strengthened  by  the  French 
king,  and  consequently  went  on  a  mission  to  France 
in  1627. 

About  this  time  the  attention  of  prominent  men 
in  England  was  called  to  the  fact  that  the  French 
had  settlements  in  Acadia.  Sir  William  Alexander, 
afterwards  the  Earl  of  Stirling,  a  favourite  of  King 
James  the  Fourth  of  Scotland  and  First  of  England, 
and  an  author  of  several  poetical  tragedies,  wished 
*  See  Trans,  Roy,  Soc,  Canada^  voL  x.,  sec.  2,  p.  93, 


GENTLEMEN-ADVENTURERS  IN  ACADIA.       95 

to  follow  the  example  of  Sir  Frederick  Gorges,  one 
of  the  promoters  of  the  colonisation  of  New  Eng- 
land. He  had  no  difficulty  in  obtaining  from  James, 
as  great  a  pedant  as  himself,  a  grant  of  Acadia,  which 
he  named  Nova  Scotia.  When  Charles  the  First 
became  king,  he  renewed  the  patent,  and  also,  at 
the  persuasion  of  the  ambitious  poet,  created  an 
order  of  Nova  Scotia  baronets,  who  were  obliged  to 
assist  in  the  settlement  of  the  country,  which  was 
thereafter  to  be  divided  into  **  baronies."  Sir  Will- 
iam Alexander,  however,  did  not  succeed  in  making 
any  settlement  in  Nova  Scotia,  and  did  not  take  any 
definite  measures  to  drive  the  French  from  his 
princely,  though  savage,  domain  until  about  the 
time  Claude  de  la  Tour  was  engaged  in  advocating 
the  claims  of  his  son  in  Europe,  where  we  must  fol- 
low him. 

The  elder  La  Tour  arrived  at  an  opportune  time 
in  France.  Cardinal  Richelieu  had  just  formed  the 
Company  of  the  Hundred  Associates,  and  it  was 
agreed  that  aid  should  at  once  be  sent  to  Charles  de 
la  Tour,  who  was  to  be  the  King's  lieutenant  in 
Acadia.  Men  and  supplies  for  :he  Acadian  settle- 
ment were  on  board  the  squadron,  commanded  by 
Roquemont,  who  was  captured  by  Kirk  in  the  sum- 
mer of  1628.  On  board  one  of  the  prizes  was  Claude 
de  la  Tour,  who  was  carried  to  London  as  prisoner. 
Then  to  make  the  position  for  Charles  de  la  Tour 
still  more  hazardous,  Sir  William  Alexander's  son 
arrived  at  Fort  Royal  in  the  same  year,  and  estab- 
lished on  the  Granville  side  a  small  Scotch  colony 
as  the  commencement  of  a  larger  settlement  in  the 


9^  THE   STORY  OF  CAI^'ADA. 

future.  Charles  de  la  Tour  does  not  appear  to  have 
remained  in  Port  Royal,  but  to  have  retired  to  the 
protection  of  his  own  fort  at  Cape  Sable,  which 
the  English  did  not  attempt  to  attack  at  that  time. 

In  the  meantime  the  elder  La  Tour  was  in  high 
favour  at  London.  He  won  the  affections  of  one 
of  the  Queen's  maids  of  honour,  and  was  easily  per- 
suaded by  Alexander  and  others  interested  in 
American  colonisation,  to  pledge  his  allegiance  to 
the  English  king.  He  and  his  son  were  made  baro- 
nets of  Nova  Scotia,  and  received  large  grants  of 
land  or  "  baronies  "  in  the  nev  province.  As  Alex- 
ander was  sending  an  expedition  in  1630  with  addi- 
tional colonists  and  supplies  for  his  colony  in  Nova 
Scotia,  Claude  de  la  Tour  agreed  to  go  there  for  the 
purpose  of  persuading  his  son  to  accept  the  honours 
and  advantages  which  the  King  of  England  had  con- 
ferred upon  him.  The  ambitious  Scotch  poet,  it 
was  clear,  still  hoped  that  his  arguments  in  favour 
of  retaining  Acadia,  despite  the  treaty  of  Susa, 
made  on  the  24th  of  April,  1629,  would  prevail  with 
the  King.  It  was  urged  that  as  Port  Royal  was  on 
soil  belonging  to  England  by  right  of  Cabot's 
discovery,  and  the  French  had  not  formally  claimed 
the  sovereignty  of  Acadia  since  the  destruction  of 
their  settlement  by  Argall,  it  did  not  fall  within 
the  actual  provisions  of  a  treaty  which  referred  only 
to  conquests  made  after  its  ratification. 

Charles  de  la  Tour  would  not  yield  to  the  appeals 
of  his  father  to  give  up  the  fort  at  Cape  Sable,  and 
obliged  the  English  vessels  belonging  to  Alexander 
to  retire  to  the  Scotch  settlement  by  the  Annapolis 


GENTI.EStEX'ADVKNrURERS  IN  ACADIA.       97 

basin.  The  elder  La  Tour  went  on  to  the  same 
place,  where  he  remained  until  his  son  persuaded 
him  to  join  the  PVench  at  F'ort  St.  Louis,  where  the 
news  had  come  that  the  King  of  France  was  deter- 
mined on  the  restoration  of  Port  Royal  as  well  as 
Quebec.  It  was  now  decided  to  build  a  new  fort  on 
the  River  St.  John,  which  would  answer  the  double 
purpose  of  strengthening  the  French  in  Acadia,  and 
driving  the  British  out  of  Port  Royal.  Whilst  this 
work  was  in  course  of  construction,  another  vessel 
arrived  from  France  with  the  welcome  news  that  the 
loyalty  of  Charles  dc  la  Tour  was  appreciated  by  the 
King,  who  had  appointed  him  as  his  lieutenant- 
governor  over  Fort  Louis,  Port  La  Tour,  and 
dependencies. 

By  the  treaty  of  St.  Germain-en-Laye  the  French 
regained  Acadia  and  were  inclined  to  pay  more 
attention  to  the  work  of  colonisation.  Richelieu 
sent  out  an  expedition  to  take  formal  possession  of 
New  France,  and  Isaac  de  Launoy  de  Razilly,  a 
military  man  of  distinction,  a  Knight  of  Malta,  and 
a  friend  of  the  great  minister,  was  appointed  gover- 
nor of  all  Acadia.  He  brought  with  him  a  select 
colony,  composed  of  artisans,  farmers,  several  Capu- 
chin friars,  and  some  gentlemen,  among  whom  were 
two  whose  names  occupy  a  prominent  place  in  the 
annals  of  Acadia  and  Cape  Breton.  One  of  them, 
was  Nicholas  Denys,  who  became  in  later  years  the 
first  governor  of  Cape  Breton,  where  he  made  settle- 
ments at  Saint  Anne's  and  Saint  Peter's,  and  also 
wrote  an  historical  and  descriptive  account  of  the 
French  Atlantic  possessions,     The  most  prominent 

7 


98  TIfE   STORY  OF  CAaYADA. 

Frenchman  after  Razilly  himself,  was  Charles  do 
Menou,  Chevalier  d'Aunay  and  son  of  Rend  de 
Menou,  lord  of  Charnizay,  who  was  of  noble  family, 
and  became  one  of  the  members  of  the  Kind's  coun- 
cil of  state  at  the  time  the  disputes  between  his  son 
and  Charles  de  la  Tour  were  at  their  height.  Charles 
de  Menou,  or  d'Aunay,  as  I  shall  generally  name 
him,  was  made  Razilly's  deputy,  and  consequently 
at  the  outset  of  his  career  assumed  a  prominence  in 
the  country  that  must  have  deeply  irritated  young 
La  Tour,  vvuo  ;,till  remained  one  of  the  King's  lieu- 
tenants and  probably  expected,  until  Razilly's  arri- 
val, to  be  the  head  of  the  colony. 

Captain  Forrester,  in  command  of  the  Scotch 
colony  at  Port  Royal,  gave  up  the  post  to  Razilly  in 
accordance  with  the  orders  of  the  English  king,  who 
had  acted  with  much  duplicity  throughout  the  nego- 
tiations. The  fort  was  razed  to  the  ground,  and  the 
majority  of  the  Scotch,  who  had  greatly  suffered 
from  disease  and  death,  left  Acadia,  though  several 
remained  and  married  among  the  French  colonists. 
This  was  the  end  of  Alexander's  experiment  in  col- 
onising Acadia  and  founding  a  colonial  fwblesse. 

Razilly  made  his  settlement  at  La  Heve,  on  the 
Atlantic  shore  of  Nova  Scotia,  and  Denys  had  a  mill 
and  trading  establishment  in  the  vicinity.  Port 
Royal  was  improved  and  the  post  at  Penobscot 
occupied.  D'Aunay  was  given  charge  of  the  divi- 
sion west  of  the  St.  Croix,  and  during  the  summer 
of  1632  he  came  by  sea  to  the  Plymouth  House  on 
the  Penobscot,  and  took  forcible  possession  of  the 
post  with  all  its  contents.     A  year  later  La  Tour 


GEN TLEMEN.ADVEX TUNERS  IN  ACADIA.       99 

also  seized  the  "  trading  wigwam  "  at  Machias,  in 
the  present  State  of  Maine,  but  not  before  two  of 
the  EngHsh  occupants  were  killed.  La  Tour  had 
by  this  time  removed  from  Cape  Sable  to  the  mouth 
of  the  River  St.  John,  where  he  had  built  a  strong 
fort  on,  probably,  Portland  Point,  on  the  east  side 
of  the  harbour  of  the  present  city  of  St.  John,  and 
was  engaged  in  a  lucrative  trade  in  furs  until  a  quar- 
rel broke  out  betwee*!  him  and  D'Aunay. 

Soon  after  Razilly's  death  in  the  autumn  of  1635, 
D'Aunay  asserted  his  right,  as  lieutenant-governor 
of  Acadia  and  his  late  chief's  deputy,  to  command 
in  the  colony.  He  obtained  from  Claude  de  Razilly, 
brother  of  the  governor,  all  his  rights  in  Acadia,  and 
removed  the  seat  of  government  from  La  H^ve  to 
Port  Royal,  where  he  built  a  fort  on  the  site  of  the 
present  town  of  Annapolis.  It  was  not  long  before 
he  and  La  Tour  became  bitter  enemies. 

La  Tour  considered,  \\\\\\  much  reason,  that  he 
had  superior  rights  on  account  of  his  long  services 
in  the  province  that  ought  to  have  been  acknowl- 
edged, and  that  D'Aunay  was  all  the  while  working 
to  injure  him  in  France.  D'Aunay  had  certainly  a 
great  advantage  over  his  opponent,  as  he  had  power- 
ful influence  at  the  French  Court,  while  La  Tour  was 
not  personally  known  and  was  regarded  with  some 
suspicion  on  account  of  his  father  being  a  Hugue- 
not, and  friendly  to  England.  As  a  matter  of  fact, 
the  younger  La  Tour  was  no  Protestant,  but  a  luke- 
warm Catholic,  who  considered  creed  subservient  to 
his  personal  interests.  This  fact  explains  w^hy  the 
Capuchin  friars  always  had  a  good  word  to  say  for 


lOO  THE   STOKY  OF  CANADA, 

his  rival  who  was  a  zealous  Catholic  and  did  much  to 
promote  their  mission. 

The  French  Government  attempted  at  first  to 
decide  between  the  two  claimants  and  settle  the  dis- 
pute, but  all  in  vain.  La  Tour  made  an  attempt  in 
1640  to  surprise  D'Aunay  at  Port  Royal,  but  the 
result  was  that  he  as  well  as  his  bride,  who  had  just 
come  from  France,  were  themselves  taken  prisoners. 
The  Capuchin  friars  induced  D'Aunay  to  set  them 
all  at  liberty  on  condition  that  La  Tour  should  keep 
the  peace  in  future.  The  only  result  was  an  aggra- 
vation of  the  difficulty  and  the  reference  of  the  dis- 
putes to  F'rance,  where  D'Aunay  won  the  day  both 
in  the  courts  and  with  the  royal  authorities.  La 
Tour's  commission  was  revoked  and  D'Aunay  event- 
ually received  an  order  to  seize  the  property  and 
person  of  his  rival,  when  he  proved  contumacious 
and  refused  to  obey  the  royal  command,  on  the 
ground  that  it  had  been  obtained  by  false  represen- 
tations. He  retired  to  his  fort  on  the  St.  John, 
where,  with  his  resolute  wife  and  a  number  of 
faithful  Frenchmen  and  Indians,  he  set  D'Aunay  at 
defiance.  In  this  crisis  La  Tour  resolved  to  appeal 
to  the  government  of  Massachusetts  for  assistance. 
In  1630,  the  town  of  Boston  was  commenced  on  the 
peninsula  of  Shawmut,  and  was  already  a  place  of 
considerable  commercial  importance.  Harvard  Col- 
lege was  already  open,  schools  were  established, 
town  meetings  were  frequent,  and  a  system  of  rep- 
resentative government  was  in  existence.  Not  only 
so,  the  colonies  of  Massachusetts,  Connecticut,  New 
Haven,  and  Plymouth  had  formed  themselves  into 


CENTLEMEN.ADVENTURERS  IN  ACADIA.     lOI 

a  confederacy  "  for  preserving  and  propagating  the 
truth  and  Hberties  of  the  Gospel,  and  for  their  own 
mutual  safety  and  welfare." 

Much  sympathy  was  felt  in  Boston  for  La  Tour, 
who  was  a  man  of  very  pleasing  manners,  and  was 
believed  to  be  a  Huguenot  at  heart.  He  explained 
the  affair  at  Machias  and  his  relations  with  the 
French  Government  to  the  satisfaction  of  the  Boston 
people,  though  apparently  with  little  regard  to 
truth.  The  desire  to  encourage  a  man,  who  prom- 
ised to  be  a  good  customer  of  their  own,  finally 
prevailed  over  their  caution,  and  the  cunning  Puri- 
tans considered  they  got  out  of  their  quandary 
by  the  decision  that,  though  the  colony  could  not 
directly  contribute  assistance,  yet  it  was  lawful  for 
private  citizens  to  charter  their  vessels,  and  ofTer 
their  services  as  volunteers  to  help  La  Tour.  The 
New  Englanders  had  not  forgotten  D'Aunay's 
action  at  Penobscot  some  years  before,  and  evidently 
thought  he  was  a  more  dangerous  man  than  his 
rival. 

Some  Massachusetts  merchants,  under  these  cir- 
cumstances, provided  La  Tour  with  four  staunch 
armed  vessels  and  seventy  men,  while  he  on  his  part 
gave  them  a  lien  over  all  his  property.  When 
D'Aunay  had  tidings  of  the  expedition  in  the  Bay 
of  Fundy,  he  raised  a  blockade  of  Fort  La  Tour  and 
escaped  to  the  westward.  La  Tour,  assisted  by 
some  of  the  New  England  volunteers,  destroyed  his 
rival's  fortified  mill,  after  a  few  lives  were  lost  on 
either  side.  A  pinnace,  having  on  board  a  large 
quantity  of  D'Aunay's  furs,  was  captured,  and  the 


102  THE  STORY  OF  CANADA, 

booty  divided  between  the  Massachusetts  men  and 
La  Tour. 

From  his  wife,  then  in  France,  where  she  had 
gone  to  plead  his  cause,  La  Tour  received  the  un- 
welcome news  that  his  enemy  was  on  his  return  to 
Acadia  with  an  overwhelming  force.  Thereupon  he 
presented  himself  again  in  Boston,  and  appealed  to 
the  authorities  for  further  assistance,  but  they  would 
not  do  more  than  send  a  remonstrance  to  D'Aunay 
and  ask  explanations  of  his  conduct. 

At  this  critical  moment.  La  Tour's  wife  appeared 
on  the  scene.  Unable  to  do  anything  in  France  for 
her  husband,  she  had  found  her  way  to  London, 
where  she  took  passage  on  a  vessel  bound  for  Boston  ; 
but  the  master,  instead  of  carrying  her  directly  to 
Fort  La  Tour,  as  he  had  agreed,  spent  some  months 
trading  in  the  Gulf  of  St.  Lawrence  and  on  the  coast 
of  Nova  Scotia.  D'Aunay  was  cruising  off  Cape 
Sable,  in  the  hope  of  intercepting  her,  and  searched 
the  vessel,  but  Madame  La  Tour  was  safely  con- 
cealed in  the  hold,  and  the  vessel  was  allowed  to  ^o 
on  to  Boston.  On  her  arrival  there,  Madame  La 
Tour  brought  an  action  against  the  master  and  con- 
signee for  a  breach  of  contract,  and  succeeded  in 
obtaining  a  judgment  in  her  favour  for  two  thousand 
pounds.  When  she  found  it  impossible  to  come  to 
a  settlement,  she  seized  the  goods  in  the  ship,  and 
on  this  security  hired  three  vessels  and  sailed  to 
rejoin  her  husband.  In  the  meantime  an  envoy  from 
D'Aunay,  a  Monsieur  Marie,  always  supposed  to  be 
a  Capuchin  friar,  presented  himself  to  the  Massachu- 
setts authorities,  and  after  making  a  strong  remon- 


GENTLEMEN-ADVENTVRERS  IN  ACADIA.      IO3 

strance  against  the  course  heretofore  pursued  by  the 
colony,  proffered  terms  of  amity  in  the  future  on 
the  condition  that  no  further  aid  was  given  to  La 
Tour.  After  some  consideration  the  colonial  gov- 
ernment, of  which  Governor  Endicott  was  now  the 
head,  agreed  to  a  trea,ty  of  friendship,  which  was  not 
ratified  by  D'Aunay  for  some  time  afterwards,  when 
La  Tour  was  a  fugitive.  Then  the  terms  were  sanc- 
tioned by  the  commissioners  of  the  confederated 
colonies. 

Having  succeeded  in  obtaining  the  neutrality  of 
the  English  colonists  through  his  agent  Marie, 
D'Aunay  then  determined  to  attack  La  Tour's  fort 
on  the  St.  John,  as  he  had  now  under  his  control  a 
sufficient  number  of  men  and  ships.  In  the  spring 
of  the  same  year,  however,  when  La  Tour  was  ab- 
sent, D'Aunay  mustered  all  his  vessels  and  men, 
and  laid  siege  to  the  fort,  but  he  met  with  most 
determined  resistance  from  the  garrison,  nerved  and 
stimulated  by  the  voice  and  example  of  the  heroic 
wife.  The  besiegers  were  almost  disheartened,  when 
a  traitor  within  the  walls — a  "  mercenary  Swiss," 
according  to  a  contemporary  writer — gave  them 
information  which  determined  them  to  renew  the 
assault  with  still  greater  vigour.  D'Aunay  and  his 
men  again  attempted  to  scale  the  walls,  but  were 
forced  to  retire  with  a  considerable  force.  Then 
D'Aunay  offered  fair  terms  if  the  fort  was  immedi- 
ately given  up.  Madame  La  Tour,  anxious  to  spare 
the  lives  of  her  brave  garrison,  which  was  rapidly 
thinning,  agreed  to  the  proposal,  and  surrendered 
the  fort;  and  then  D'Aunay  is  said  to  have  broken 


104  THE   STORY  OF  CANADA, 

his  solemn  pledge,  and  hanged  all  the  defenders  ex- 
cept one,  whose  life  was  spared  on  the  condition  of 
his  acting  as  executioner. 

One  would  fain  not  believe  what  the  contempo- 
rary historian  adds,  that  D'Aunay  forced  Madame 
La  Tour  to  remain  with  a  rope  round  her  own  neck, 
and  witness  the  execution  of  the  brave  men  who 
had  so  nobly  assisted  her  in  defending  the  fort. 
The  poor  lady  did  not  long  survive  this  tragedy,  as 
she  died  a  prisoner  a  few  weeks  later.  All  the  acts 
of  her  adventurous  and  tragic  career  prove  her  to 
have  been  a  good  woman  and  a  courageous  wife,  and 
may  well  be  an  inspiring  theme  for  poetry  and 
romance.* 

D'Aunay  now  reigned  supreme  in  Acadia.  He 
had  burdened  himself  heavily  with  debt  in  his  efforts 
to  ruin  his  rival,  but  he  had  some  compensation  in 

*  This  story  of  the  capture  of  Fort  La  Tour  rests  on  the  authority 
of  Denys  {Description  Ge'ographique  et  Historique  de  V Am^rique 
Septentrionale,  Paris,  1672),  who  was  in  Acadia  at  the  time  and  must 
have  had  an  account  from  eyewitnesses  of  the  tragedy.  The  details 
which  make  D'Aunay  so  cruel  and  relentless  are  denied  by  a  Mr. 
Moreau  in  his  Histoire  de  V Acadie  Fran^aise  (Paris,  1873).  This 
book  is  confessedly  written  at  the  dictation  of  living  members  of  the 
D'Aunay  family,  and  is,  from  the  beginning  to  the  end,  an  undis- 
criminating  eulogy  of  D'Aunay  and  an  uncompromising  attack  on  the 
memory  of  La  Tour  and  his  wife.  He  attempts  to  deny  that  the  fort 
was  seized  by  treachery,  when  on  another  page  he  has  gone  so  far  as 
to  accuse  some  Recollets  >f  having  made,  at  the  instigation  of 
D'Aunay  himself,  an  attempt  to  win  the  garrison  from  Madame  La 
Tour  who  was  a  Protestant  and  disliked  by  the  priests.  He  also  admits 
that  a  number  of  the  defenders  of  the  fort  were  executed,  while 
others,  probably  the  traitors,  had  their  lives  spared.  The  attacks  on 
Madame  La  Tour's  character  are  not  warranted  by  impartial  history, 
and  clearly  show  the  bias  of  the  book. 


GENTLEMEN-ADVENTURERS  IN  ACADIA.     10$ 

the  booty  he  found  at  St.  John.  By  the  capture  of 
his  fort  La  Tour  lost  jewels,  plate,  furniture,  and 
goods  valued  at  ten  t uousand  pounds,  and  was  for  a 
time  a  bankrupt.  His  debts  m  Boston  were  very 
heavy,  and  Major  Gibbons,  who  had  sent  vessels  to 
Fort  La  Tour  in  1643,  was  never  able  to  recover  the 
mortgage  he  had  taken  on  his  estate.  Bereft  of  wife 
and  possessions,  La  Tour  left  Acadia  and  sought  aid 
from  Sir  David  Kirk,  who  was  then  governor  of 
Newfoundland,  but  to  no  purpose.  Various  stories 
are  told  of  his  career  for  two  years  or  longer,  and  it 
is  even  reported  that  he  robbed  a  Boston  vessel  in 
his  necessities,  **  whereby  it  appeared,  as  the  Scrip- 
ture saith,"  mournfully  exclaims  Governor  Win- 
throp,  "that  there  is  no  confidence  in  any  unfaithful 
or  carnal  man."  Boston  merchants  and  sailors  had 
suffered  a  good  deal  from  both  D'Aunay  and  La 
Tour,  and  such  a  story  would  naturally  obtain  cre- 
dence among  men  who  found  they  had  made  a  bad 
invectment  in  Fort  La  Tour  and  its  appendages. 
D'Aunay  continued  his  work  of  improving  Port 
Royal  and  surrounding  country,  and  the  colony  he 
founded  was  the  parent  of  those  large  settlements 
that  in  the  course  of  time  stretched  as  far  as  the 
isthmus  of  Chignecto.  He  was  accidentally  drowned 
in  the  Annapolis  River  some  time  in  1650.  French 
Canadian  writers  call  him  cruel,  vindictive,  rapacious, 
and  arbitrary,  but  he  has  never  been  the  favourite 
of  historians.  His  plans  of  settlement  had  a  sound 
basis  and  might  have  led  to  a  prosperous  and  popu- 
lous Acadia,  had  he  not  wrecked  them  by  the  malig- 
nity with  which  he  followed  La  Tour  and  his  wife.   . 


to6  THE   STORY  OF  CANADA. 

La  Tour,  in  the  year  1648,  visited  Quebec,  where 
he  was  received  with  the  most  gratifyin^^  demonstra- 
tions of  respect  by  his  countrymen,  who  admired  his 
conduct  in  the  Acadian  stru<^gle.  Then  D'Aunay 
died  and  La  Tour  immediately  went  to  France, 
where  the  government  acknowledged  the  injustice 
with  which  it  had  treated  him  in  the  past,  and  ap- 
pointed him  governor  of  Acadia,  with  enlarged  priv- 
ileges and  powers.  In  1653  he  married  D'Aunay's 
widow,  Jeanne  de  Motin,  in  the  hope — to  quote  the 
contract — "  to  secure  the  peace  and  tranquillity  of 
the  country,  and  concord  and  union  betv/een  the 
two  families."  Peace  then  reigned  for  some  months 
in  Acadia  ;  many  new  settlers  came  into  the  coun- 
try, the  forts  were  strengthened,  and  the  people 
were  hoping  for  an  era  of  prosperity.  But  there 
was  to  be  no  peace  or  rest  for  the  French  in  Acadia. 

One  of  D'Aunay's  creditors  in  France, -named  Le 
Borgne,  came  to  America  in  1654  at  the  head  of  a 
large  force,  with  the  object  of  obtaining  possession 
of  D'Aunay's  property,  and  possibly  of  his  position 
in  Acadia.  He  made  a  prisoner  of  Denys,  who  was 
at  that  time  engaged  in  trade  in  Cape  Breton,  and 
treated  him  with  great  harshness.  After  a  short 
imprisonment  at  Port  Royal,  which  was  occupied  by 
Le  Borgne,  Denys  was  allowed  to  go  to  France, 
where  he  succeeded  eventually  in  obtaining  a  redress 
of  his  grievances,  and  an  appointment  as  governor 
of  Cape  Breton. 

Whilst  Le  Borgne  was  preparing  to  attack  La 
Tour,  the  English  appeared  on  the  scene  of  action. 
By  this  time  the  civil  war  had  been  fought  in  Eng- 


GENTLEMEX-ADVEI^TVREKS  IiV  ACaD/A.      I07 

land,  tho  King  beh:;aded,  and  Cromwell  proclaimed 
Lord  Protector  of  the  Commonwealth.  In  1653 
very  strong  representations  were  made  to  the  latter 
by  the  colonists  of  New  England  with  respect  to  the 
movements  of  the  French  in  Acadia,  and  the  neces- 
sity of  reducing  the  country  to  the  dominion  of 
England.  Peace  then  nominally  prevailed  between 
France  and  Great  Britain,  but  we  have  seen,  as  the 
case  of  Argall  prov^ed,  that  matters  in  America  were 
often  arranged  without  much  reference  to  inter- 
national obligations.  A  fleet,  which  had  been  sent 
out  by  Cromwell  to  operate  against  the  Dutch  col- 
ony at  Manhattan,  arrived  at  Boston  in  June,  1654, 
and  the  news  came  a  few  days  later  that  peace  had 
been  proclaimed  between  the  English  and  Dutch. 
Thereupon  an  expedition  was  organised  against  the 
French  under  the  command  of  Major  Robert  Sedge- 
wick  of  Massachusetts.  Le  Borgne  at  Port  Royal 
and  La  Tour  on  the  St.  John  immediately  surren- 
dered to  this  force,  and  in  a  few  days  all  Acadia  was 
once  more  in  the  hands  of  the  English.  Denys  was 
almost  ruined  by  these  events  and  obliged  to  retire 
for  a  time  from  the  country.  La  Tour  was  now  far 
advanced  in  years,  and  did  not  attempt  to  resist  the 
evil  destiny  that  seemed  to  follow  all  the  efforts  of 
France  to  establish  herself  in  Nova  Scotia.  No 
doubt  the  injuries  he  had  received  from  his  own 
countrymen,  together  with  the  apathy  which  the 
French  Government  always  displayed  in  the  affairs 
of  Acadia,  were  strong  arguments,  if  any  were 
needed,  to  induce  him  to  place  himself  under  the 
protection  of  the  English.     The  representations  he 


108  THE   STORY  OF  CANADA. 

made  to  the  Protector  met  with  a  favourable  re- 
sponse, and  obtained  for  him  letters  patent,  dated 
August  9,  1656,  granting  to  him,  Sir  Charles  La 
Tour,  in  conjunction  with  Sir  Thomas  Temple  and 
William  Crowne,  the  whole  territory  of  Acadia,  the 
mines  and  minerals  alone  being  reserved  for  the 
government.  Sir  Thomas  Temple,  a  man  of  gener- 
ous disposition  and  remarkably  free  from  religious 
prejudices,  subsequently  purchased  La  Tour's  rights, 
and  carried  on  a  large  trade  in  Acadia  with  much 
energy.  La  Tour  now  disappears  from  the  scene, 
and  is  understood  to  have  died  in  the  country  he 
loved  in  the  year  1666,  at  the  ripe  age  of  seventy- 
four.  He  left  several  descendants,  none  of  whom 
played  a  prominent  part  in  Acadian  history,  though 
there  are  persons  still  in  the  maritime  provinces  of 
Canada  who  claim  a  connection  with  his  family.  His 
name  clings  to  the  little  harbour  near  Cape  Sable, 
where  he  built  his  post  of  Lomeron,  and  antiquaries 
now  alone  fight  over  the  site  of  the  more  famous 
fort  at  the  mouth  of  the  St.  John,  where  a  large  and 
enterprising  city  has  grown  up  since  the  English  oc- 
cupation. About  the  figure  of  this  bold  gentleman- 
adventurer  the  romance  of  history  has  cast  a  veil  of 
interest  and  generous  appreciation  on  account  of  the 
devotion  of  his  wife  and  of  the  obstinate  fight  he 
waged  under  tremendous  disadvantages  against  a 
wealthy  rival,  supported  by  the  authority  of  France. 
He  was  made  of  the  same  material  as  those  brave 
men  of  the  west  coast  of  England  who  fought  and 
robbed  the  Spaniard  in  the  Spanish  Main,  but  as  he 
plundered  only  Puritans  by  giving  them  worthless 


GENTLEMEiX-ADVENTUKEKS  IN  ACADIA.      IO9 

mortgages,  and  fought  only  in  the  Acadian  wilds, 
history  has  given  him  a  relatively  small  space  in  its 
pages. 

Acadia  remained  in  possession  of  England  until 
the  Treaty  of  Breda,  which  was  concluded  in  July 
of  1667,  between  Charles  II.  and  Louis  XIV.  Tem- 
ple, who  had  invested  his  fortune  in  the  country, 
was  nearly  ruined,  and  never  received  any  compen- 
sation for  his  efforts  to  develop  Acadia.  In  a  later 
chapter,  when  we  continue  the  chequered  history  of 
Acadia,  we  shall  see  that  her  fortunes  from  this  time 
become  more  closely  connected  with  those  of  the 
greater  and  more  favoured  colony  of  France  in  the 
valley  of  the  St.  Lawrence. 


vrii. 

THE     CANADIAN     INDIANS     AND     THE      IROQUOIS  : 

THEIR   ORGANISATION,    CHARACTER, 

AND  CUSTOMS. 


At  the  time  of  Champlain's  death  we  sec  gather- 
ing in  America  the  forces  that  were  to  influence  the 
fortunes  of  French  Canada — the  English  colonies 
growing  up  by  the  side  of  the  Atlantic  and  the  Iro- 
quois, those  dangerous  foes,  already  irritated  by  the 
founder  of  Quebec.  These  Indians  were  able  to  buy 
firearms  and  ammunition  from  the  Dutch  traders  at 
Fort  Orange,  now  Albany,  on  the  beautiful  river 
which  had  been  discovered  by  Hudson  in  1609. 
From  their  warlike  qualities  and  their  strong  natural 
position  between  the  Hudson  and  Niagara  rivers, 
they  had  now  become  most  important  factors  in  the 
early  development  of  the  French  and  English  colo- 
nies, and  it  is  consequently  important  to  give  some 
particulars  of  their  character  and  organisation.  In 
the  first  place,  however,  I  shall  refer  to  those 
Indian  tribes  who  liv^ed  in  Canada,  and  were  closely 
identified  with  the  interests  of  the  French  settle- 
ments.    These  Indians  also  became  possessed    of 

IIQ 


z 


< 

O 

6 


< 


o 


o 
u 

mm 

z 


112  THE   STORY  OF  CANADA, 

firearms,  sold  to  them  from  time  to  time  by  fjrcedy 
traders,  despite  the  interdict  of  the  French  authori- 
ties in  the  early  days  of  the  colonies. 

Champlain  found  no  traces  of  the  Indians  of  Car- 
tier's  time  at  Stadacona  and  Hochelaga.  The  tribes 
which  had  frequented  the  St.  Lawrence  seventy 
years  before  had  v^anished,  and  in  their  place  he  saw 
bands  of  wandering  Algon([uins.  It  was  only  when 
he  reached  the  shores  of  Georgian  Bay  that  he  came 
to  Indian  villages  resembling  that  Hochelaga  which 
had  disappeared  so  mysteriously.  The  St.  Lawrence 
in  Cartier's  day  had  been  frequented  by  tribes 
speaking  one  or  more  of  the  dialects  of  the  Huron- 
Iroquois  family,  one  of  the  seven  great  families  that 
then  inhabited  North  America  east  of  the  Missis- 
sippi, from  the  Gulf  of  Mexico  to  the  Hudson's  Bay. 
The  short  and  imperfect  vocabulary  of  Indian  words 
which  Cartier  left  behind,  his  account  of  Hochelaga, 
the  intimacy  of  the  two  Gaspe  Indians  with  the  in- 
habitants of  Stadacona — these  and  other  facts  go  to 
show -that  the  barbarous  tribes  he  met  were  of  the 
Iroquois  stock. 

The  Indians  have  never  had  any  written  records, 
in  the  European  sense,  to  perpetuate  the  doings  of 
their  nations  or  tribes.  From  generation  to  genera- 
tion, from  century  to  century,  however,  tradition 
has  told  of  the  deeds  of  ancestors,  and  given  us 
vague  stories  of  the  origin  and  history  of  the  tribes. 
It  is  only  in  this  folk-lore — proved  often  on  patient 
investigation  to  be  of  historic  value — that  wv-^  can 
find  some  threads  to  guide  us  through  the  labyrinth 
of  mystery  to  which  we  come  in   the  prehistoric 


CANADIAN  AND  IKOQUOIS  INDIANS.  II3 

times  of  Canada.  Popular  tradition  tolls  us  that  the 
Hurons  and  Iroquois,  branches  of  the  same  family, 
speaking  dialects  of  one  common  language,  were  liv- 
ing at  one  time  in  villa<^es  not  far  from  each  other 
— the  Hurons  probably  at  Hochelaga  and  the  Sene- 
cas  on  the  opposite  side  of  the  mountain.  It  was 
against  the  law  of  the  two  communities  for  their 
men  and  women  to  intermarry,  but  the  potent  influ- 
ence of  true  love,  so  rare  in  an  Indian's  bosom,  soon 
broke  this  command.  A  Huron  girl  entered  the 
cabin  of  an  Iroquois  chief  as  his  wife.  It  was  an 
unhappy  marriage,  the  husband  killed  the  wife  in  an 
angry  moment.  This  was  a  serious  matter,  requir- 
ing a  council  meeting  of  the  two  tribes.  Murder 
must  be  avenged,  or  liberal  compensation  given  to 
the  friends  of  the  dead.  The  council  decided  that 
the  woman  deserved  death,  but  the  verdict  did  not 
please  all  her  relatives,  one  of  whom  went  off  secretly 
and  killed  an  Iroquois  warrior.  Then  both  tribes 
took  up  the  hatchet  and  went  on  the  warpath 
against  each  other,  with  the  result  that  the  village 
of  Hochelaga,  with  all  the  women  and  children,  was 
destroyed,  and  the  Hurons,  who  were  probably 
beaten,  left  the  St.  LawTence,  and  eventually  found 
a  new  home  on  Lake  Huron.* 

Leaving  this  realm  of  tradition,  which  has  prob- 
ably a  basis  of  fact,  we  come  to  historic  times.  In 
Champlain's  interesting  narrative,  and  in  the  Jesuit 
Relations,  we  find  very  few  facts  relating  to  Indian 
history,   though  we  have  very  full  information  re- 

*  See  Horatio  Hale's  "  Fall  of  Hochelaga,"  in  Journal  of  Ameri- 
can Folklore^  Cambridge,  Mass.,  1894. 
8 


114  THE   STORY  OF  CAXADA, 

spcctin^  their  customs,  superstitions,  and  methods 
of  hvin^.  The  reports  of  the  missionaries,  in  fact, 
form  the  basis  of  all  the  knowledge  we  have  of  the 
Canadian  tribes  as  well  as  of  the  Five  Nations  them- 
selves. 

It  is  only  necessary  that  wc  should  here  take  ac- 
count of  the  Algonquins  and  Huron-Iroquois,  two 
great  families  separated  from  one  another  by  radical 
differences  of  language,  and  not  by  special  racial  or 
physical  characteristics.  The  Eskimo,  Dacotah, 
Mandan,  Pawnee,  and  Muskoki  groups  have  no 
immediate  connection  with  this  Canadian  story,  al- 
though we  shall  meet  representatives  of  these  natural 
divisions  in  later  chapters  when  we  find  the  French 
in  the  Northwest,  and  on  the  waters  of  the  Missouri 
and  Mississippi.  The  Algonquins  and  Huron- 
Iroquois  occupied  the  country  extending,  roughly 
speaking,  from  Virginia  to  Hudson's  Bay,  and  from 
the  Mississippi  to  the  Atlantic.  The  Algonquins 
were  by  far  the  most  numerous  and  widely  distrib- 
uted. Dialects  of  their  common  language  were 
heard  on  the  Atlantic  coast  all  the  way  from  Cape 
Fear  to  the  Arctic  region  where  the  Eskimo  hunted 
the  seal  or  the  walrus  in  his  skin  kayak.  On  the 
banks  of  the  Kennebec  and  Penobscot  in  Acadia  we 
find  the  Abenakis,  who  were  firm  friends  of  the 
French.  They  were  hunters  in  the  great  forests  of 
Maine,  where  even  yet  roam  the  deer  and  moose. 
The  Etchemins  or  Canoemen,  inhabited  the  country 
west  and  east  of  the  St.  Croix  River,  which  had  been 
named  by  De  Monts.  In  Nova  Scotia,  Cape  Bre- 
ton,  and  Prince  Edward  Island,  we  see  the  Micmacs 


CAXADIAX  AXD  /AOQl/O/S  INDIANS. 


115 


or  Souriquois,  a  fierce,  cruel  race  in  early  times, 
whose  chief,  Membertou,  was  the  first  convert  of 
the  Acadian  missionaries.  They  were  hunters  and 
fishermen,  and  did  not  till  the  soil  even  in  the  lazy 
fashion  of  their  Algonquin  kindred  in  New  England. 
The  climate  of  Nova  Scotia  was  not  so  congenial  to 
the  production  of  maize  as  that  of  the  more  southern 
countries.  It  was  the  culture  of  this  very  prolific 
plant,  so  easily  sown,  gathered,  and  dried,  that 
largely  modified  and  improved  the  savage  conditions 
of  Indian  life  elsewhere  on  the  continent.  It  is 
where  the  maize  was  most  abundant,  in  the  valley 
of  the  Ohio,  that  we  find  relics  of  Indian  arts — such 
as  we  never  find  in  Acadia  or  Canada. 

On  the  St.  Lawrence,  between  the  Gulf  and  Que- 
bec, there  were  wandering  Algonquin  tribes,  gener- 
ally known  as  Montagnais  or  Mountaineers,  living 
in  rude  camps  covered  with  bark  or  brush,  eking  a 
precarious  existence  from  the  rivers  and  woods,  and 
at  times  on  the  verge  of  starvation,  when  they  did 
not  hesitate  at  cannibalism.  Between  Quebec  and 
the  Upper  Ottawa  there  were  no  village  communi- 
ties of  any  importance;  for  the  Petite  Nation  of  the 
river  of  that  name  was  only  a  small  band  of  Algon- 
quins,  living  some  distance  from  the  Ottawa.  On 
the  Upper  Ottawa  we  meet  with  the  nation  of  the 
Isle  (Allumette)  and  the  Nipissings,  both  Algon- 
quin tribes,  mentioned  in  a  previous  chapter.  They 
were  chiefly  hunters  and  fishermen,  although  the 
former  cultivated  some  patches  of  ground.  On 
Georgian  Bay  we  come  to  a  nation  speaking  one  of 
the  dialects  of  a  language  quite  distinct  from  that 


Il6  THE   STORY  OF  CANADA. 

of  the  Algonquins.  These  were  Hurons,  numbering 
in  all  some  twenty  thousand  souls,  of  whom  ten 
thousand  or  more  were  adults,  living  in  thirty-two 
villages,  comprising  seven  hundred  dwellings  of  the 
same  style  as  Cartier  saw  at  Hocheiaga.  These  vil- 
lages were  protected  by  stockades  or  palisades,  and 
by  some  natural  features  of  their  situation — a  river, 
a  lake,  or  a  hill.  Neither  the  long  houses  nor  the 
fortifications  were  as  strongly  or  as  cleverly  con- 
structed as  those  of  the  Iroquois.  Maize,  pumpkins, 
and  tobacco  were  the  principal  plants  cultivated. 
Sunflowers  were  also  raised,  chiefly  for  the  oil  with 
which  they  greased  their  hair  and  bodies.  Their 
very  name  meant  **  Shock-heads  " — a  nickname 
originating  from  the  exclamation  of  some  French- 
men, when  they  first  saw  their  grotesque  way  of 
wearing  their  hair,  "  Qiiclles  hiires  !  "  (What  a  head 
of  hair!)  Champlain  speaks  of  a  tribe  whom  he  met 
after  leaving  Lake  Nipissing,  in  1615,  and  called  the 
Cheveux  Reieve'Sy  or  people  with  the  stifT  hair,  but 
they  were  wandering  Algonquins.  Champlain  called 
the  Hurons,  Attigouantans,  though  their  true  name 
was  Ouendat,  afterwards  corrupted  to  Wyandot, 
which  still  clings  to  a  remnant  of  the  race  in 
America. 

They  were  brave  and  warlike,  with  perhaps  more 
amiable  qualities  than  the  more  ferocious,  robust 
Iroquois.  The  nation  appears  to  have  been  a  con- 
federacy of  tribes,  each  of  which  was  divided  into 
clans  or  gentes  on  the  Iroquois  principle,  which  I 
shall  shortly  explain.  Two  chiefs,  one  for  peace  and 
QUe  for  war,  assisted  by  a  council  of  tribal  chiefs. 


CANADIAN  AND  IKOOUOIS  INDIANS.  \\*J 

constituted  the  general  government.  Each  tribe 
had  a  system  of  local  or  self-government — to  use  a 
phrase  applicable  to  modern  federal  conditions — 
consisting  of  chiefs  and  council.  The  federal  organ- 
isation was  not,  however,  so  carefully  framed  and 
adjusted  as  that  of  their  kin,  the  Iroquois.  At 
council  meetings  all  the  principal  men  attended  and 
votes  were  taken  with  the  aid  of  reeds  or  sticks,  the 
majority  prevailing  in  all  cases.  The  whole  organi- 
sation was  essentially  a  democracy,  as  the  chiefs, 
although  an  oligarchy  in  appearance,  were  controlled 
by  the  voices  and  results  of  the  councils.  In  this  as 
in  other  American  savage  nations,  the  rule  govern- 
ing the  transmission  of  hereditary  honours  and  pos- 
sessions was  through  the  female  line. 

Beyond  the  Huron  villages,  south  of  Nottawasaga 
Bay — so  named  probably  from  the  Nottaways,  a 
branch  of  the  same  family,  driven  by  war  to  the 
south — we  come  to  the  Tionotates  or  Tobacco  tribe, 
who  were  kin  in  language  and  customs  to  their 
neighbours  and  afterwards  joined  their  confederacy. 
The  Neutral  Nation,  or  Attiwandaronks  of  Iroquois 
stock,  had  their  homes  on  the  north  shore  of  Lake 
Erie,  and  reached  even  as  far  as  the  Niagara.  They 
were  extremely  cruel,  and  kept  for  a  long  while  their 
position  of  neutrality  between  the  Hurons  and  Five 
Nations.  To  the  south  of  Lake  Erie  rose  the  smoke 
of  the  fires  of  the  Eries,  generally  translated  ''Cats," 
but,  properly  speaking,  the  **  Raccoons."  Like 
the  Andastes,  near  the  Susquehanna,  mentioned  in 
a  previous  chapter,  they  were  famous  warriors,  and 
for  years  held  their  own  against  the  Iroquois,  but 


Ii8 


THE    STORY  OF  CANADA. 


eventually  both  these  nations  yielded  to  the  fury 
of  the  relentless  confederacy. 

We  have  now  come  to  the  western  door  of  the 
"  long  house  "  {^Ho-dc-no-sotc)  of  the  Iroquois,  who 
called  themselves  "  the  people  of  the  long  house  " 
{Ho-(h'-uo-sau-na')y  because  they  dwelt  in  a  line  of 
villages  of  **  long  houses,"  reaching  from  the  Gene- 
see to  the  Mohawk,  where  the  eastern  door  looked 
toward  the  Hudson  and  Lake  Champlain.  The 
name  by  which  they  have  been  best  known  is 
considered  by  Charlevoix  and  other  writers  to  be 
originally  French;  derived  from"  Hiro  "  (I  have 
spoken) — the  conclusion  of  all  their  harangues — and 
Koue,  an  exclamation  of  sorrow  when  it  was  pro- 
longed, and  of  joy  when  pronounced  shortly.  They 
comprised  five  nations,  living  by  the  lakes,  that  still 
bear  their  names  in  the  State  of  New  York,  in  the 
following  order  as  we  go  east  from  Niagara : 


IROQUOIS   NATIONS. 

Nundawaona         \ 
Great  hill  people  f 

Gueugwehono  ) 

People  of  the  marsh  ) 

Onundagaono  ) 

People  of  the  hills  [ 

Onayotekaono   ) 
Granite  people  \ 

Ganeagaono  / 

Possessors  of  the  flint  f 


ENGLISH   NAMES. 

FRENCH    NAMES. 

Seneca 

Tsonnontouans 

Cayuga 

Goyogouin 

Onondaga 

Onnontagiie 

Oneida 

Onneyote 

Mohawk 

Acnier 

Each  tribe  lived  in  a  separate  village  of  long 
houses,  large  enough  to  hold  from  five  to  twenty 
families.  Each  family  was  a  clan  or  kin — resem- 
bling the  gens  of  the  Roman,  the  yevog  of  the  Greek 


CAiVADIAN-  AXD  IROQUOIS  INDIANS.         1 IQ 

— a  group  of  males  and  females,  whose  kinship  was 
reckoned  only  through  females — the  universal  cus- 
tom in  archaic  times  in  America.  As  among  these 
people  the  marriage  tie  was  easily  sundered  and 
chastity  was  the  exception, — remarkably  so  among 
the  Hurons,  their  kindred — it  is  not  strange  that  all 
rank,  titles,  and  property  should  be  based  on  the 
rights  of  the  woman  alone.  The  child  belonged 
consequently  to  the  clan,  not  of  the  father,  but  of 


IROQUOIS    LONG    HOUSE   (FROM  MORGAN). 

the  mother.  Each  of  these  tenement  houses,  as 
they  may  well  be  called,  was  occupied  by  related 
families,  the  mothers  and  their  children  belonging  to 
the  same  clan,  while  the  husbands  and  the  fathers  of 
these  children  belonged  to  other  clans ;  consequently, 
the  clan  or  kin  of  the  mother  easily  predominated  in 
the  household.*  Every  clan  had  a  name  derived 
from  the  animal  world,  as  a  rule,  and   a  rude  picture 

*  In  this  necessarily  very  imperfect  description  of  the  organisation 
and  customs  of  the  Five  Nations  I  depend  mainly  on  those  valuable 
and  now  rare  books,  The  League  of  the  Iroquois,  and  Houses  and 
Home  Life  of  the  Aborigines^  by  Lewis  H.  Morgan.  The  reader 
should  also  consult  Horatio  Hale's  Iroquois  Book  of  Rites. 


120  THE   STORY  OF  CAN  AD  A. 

of  the  same  was  the  "  totem  "  or  coat-of-arms  of 
the  kin  ox  gens,  found  over  the  door  of  a  long  house 
or  tattooed  on  the  arms  or  bodies  of  its  members. 
The  Tortoise,  Bear,  and  Wolf,  were  for  a  long 
time  the  most  conspicuous  totems  of  the  Iroquois. 
These  people  were  originally  a  nation  of  one  stock 
of  eight  clans,  and  when  they  separated  into  five 
tribes  or  sections,  each  contained  parts  of  the  origi- 
nal clans.  Consequently,  "  all  the  members  of  the 
same  clan,  whatever  tribe  they  belonged  to,  were 
brothers  or  sisters  to  each  other  in  virtue  of  their 
descent  from  the  same  common  female  ancestor,  and 
they  recognised  each  other  as  such  with  the  fullest 
cordiality," 

Whatever  was  taken  in  the  hunt,  or  raised  in  cul- 
tivation, by  any  member  of  the  household — and  the 
Iroquois  were  good  cultivators  of  maize,  beans,  and 
squash — was  used  as  a  common  stock  for  that  par- 
ticular household.  No  woman  could  marry  a  mem- 
ber of  her  own  clan  or  kin.  The  marriage  might  be 
severed  at  the  will  of  either  party.  Yet,  while  the 
Iroquois  women  had  so  much  importance  in  the 
household  and  in  the  regulation  of  inheritance,  she 
was  almost  as  much  a  drudge  as  the  squaw  of  the 
savage  Micmacs  of  Acadia  and  the  Gulf. 

The  tribe  was  simply  a  community  of  Indians  of 
a  particular  family  or  stock,  speaking  one  of  the 
dialects  of  its  language.  For  instance,  the  Five 
Nations  or  Tribes  spoke  different  dialects  of  the 
Iroquoian  stock  language,  but  each  could  understand 
the  other  sufficiently  for  all  purposes  of  deliberation 
and  discussion.      Each  tribe  was  governed  by  its 


CANaD/A.V  and  I JW  quo  is  IXDIANS.  12 1 

own  council  of  sachems  and  chiefs — the  latter  in- 
ferior in  rank — elected  by  their  respective  clans,  but 
invested  with  office  by  the  whole  tribe.  For  all  pur- 
poses of  tribal  government  the  tribes  had  separate 
territories  and  jurisdiction.  For  common  purposes 
they  united  in  a  confederation  in  which  each  tribe 
occupied  a  position  of  complete  equality — the  ex- 
ception being  the  Tuscaroras — Dusgadweh  or  "  shirt- 
wearing  people  " — who  came  from  the  south  at  the 
beginning  of  the  eighteenth  century,  and  made  up 
the  "  Six  Nations."  If  a  tribe  made  peace  it  would 
not  bind  the  other  tribes  unless  they  had  given  their 
consent  in  formal  council,  or  by  the  presence  of 
their  representatives.  A  general  council  of  fifty 
sachems,  equal  in  rank  and  authority,  administered 
the  iffairs  of  the  confederation.  These  sachems 
were  created  in  perpetuity  in  certain  clans  of  the 
several  tribes  and  invested  with  office  by  the  gen- 
eral council.  They  were  also  sachems  in  their  re- 
spective tribes,  and  with  other  clan-chiefs  formed  the 
council  which  was  supreme  over  all  matters  apper- 
taining to  the  tribe  exclusively.  Women,  too,  had 
their  clan  and  other  councils,  and  could  make  their 
wishes  known  through  the  delegates  they  appointed 
to  the  council  of  the  league.  In  the  federal  council 
the  sachems  voted  by  tribes,  and  unanimity  was 
essential  before  action  was  taken  or  a  conclusion 
arrived  at.  The  general  council  was  open  to  the 
whole  community  for  the  discussion  of  public  ques- 
tions, but  the  council  alone  decided.  The  council 
of  each  tribe  had  power  to  convene  the  general 
council,  but   the   latter   could  not  convene  itself. 


122  THE  STORY  OF  CANADA. 

With  the  object  of  preventing  the  concentration 
of  too  much  power  in  one  man's  hands,  the  federal 
council  appointed  two  war  chiefs,  equal  in  authority. 
The  council  fire  or  brand  was  always  burning  in  the 
valley  of  the  Onondagas,  where  the  central  council 
met  as  a  rule  in  the  autumn,  or  whenever  a  tribe 
might  consider  a  special  meeting  necessary.  The 
Onondagas  had  also  the  custody  of  the  "  Wampum," 
or  mnemonic  record  of  their  structure  of  government, 
and  the  Tadoda'ho,  or  most  noble  sachem  of  the 
league,  was  among  the  same  tribe.  The  origin  of  the 
confederacy  is  attributed  in  legendary  lore  to  Ha-yo- 
went'~ha,  the  Hiawatha  of  Longfellow's  poem. 

These  are  the  main  features  of  that  famous  polity 
of  the  Iroquois  which  gave  them  so  remarkable  a 
power  of  concentration  in  war,  and  was  one  reason 
of  their  decided  superiority  over  all  the  other  nations 
of  America.  In  council,  where  all  common  and 
tribal  affairs  were  decided,  the  Iroquois  showed  great 
capacity  for  calm  deliberation,  and  became  quite 
eloquent  at  times.  Their  language  was  extremely 
figurative,  though  incapable  of  the  expression  of 
abstract  thought,  as  is  the  case  with  Indian  tongues 
generally.  The  Indian — essentially  a  materialist — 
could  only  find  his  similes,  metaphors,  and  illustra- 
tions in  the  objects  of  nature,  but  these  he  used 
with  great  skill.  The  Iroquois  had  a  very  keen  ap- 
preciation of  their  interests,  and  were  well  able  to 
protect  them  in  their  bargains  or  contracts  with  the 
white  men.  In  war  they  were  a  terrible  foe,  and  a 
whisper  of  their  neighbourhood  brought  consterna- 
tion to  Indian  camps  and  cabins  from  the  Kennebec 


CANADIAN  AXD  IROQUOIS  IND/AA'S.  123 

to  the  Delaware,  from  the  Susquehanna  to  the  Illi- 
nois. They  have  been  well  described  as  "the  scourge 
of  God  upon  the  aborigines  of  the  continent."  In 
their  political  organisation,  their  village  life,  their 
culture  of  the  soil,  their  power  of  eloquence,  their 
skill  as  politicians  as  well  as  warriors,  they  were 
superior  to  all  the  tribes  in  America  as  far  as  New 
Mexico,  although  in  the  making  of  pottery  and 
other  arts  they  were  inferior  to  the  mound-builders 
of  the  Ohio  and  the  Mississippi — probably  the  Alle- 
gewi  who  gave  their  names  to  the  Alleghanies  and 
are  believed  by  some  writers  to  have  been  either  ex- 
terminated by  a  combination  of  Algonquin  and  Iro- 
quois or  driven  southward  where  they  were  absorbed 
in  other  nations.  At  no  time  could  the  Iroquois 
muster  more  than  3000  warriors ;  and  yet  they  were 
the  scourge  and  dread  of  all  the  scattered  tribes  of 
Algonquins,  numbering  in  the  aggregate  probably 
90,000  souls,  and  eventually  crushed  the  Hurons  and 
those  other  tribes  of  their  own  nationality,  who  did 
not  belong  to  their  confederacy  and  had  evoked 
their  wrath. 

The  Algonquin  and  Huron-Iroquois  nations  had 
many  institutions  and  customs  in  common.  Every 
clan  had  some  such  totem  as  I  have  described  in  the 
case  of  the  Iroquois.  Every  tribe  had  its  chiefs  as 
military  leaders  and  its  councils  for  deliberation  and 
decision.  Consequently  the  democratic  principle 
dominated  the  whole  organisation.  Eloquence  was 
always  prized  and  cultivated  as  a  necessity  of  the 
system  of  government.  Some  tribes  had  their 
special  orators  among  the  chiefs.    Though  a  general 


124  ^^i^    STORY  OF  CANADA. 

m 

war  was  dc[)cndent  on  the  action  of  the  council,  yet 
any  number  of  warriors  mij^ht  go  on  the  warpath  at 
any  time  against  the  enemies  of  the  tribe.  They 
had  no  written  records,  but  their  memories  were 
aided  in  council  or  otherwise  by  reeds  or  sticks  and 
rude  pictures;  strings  of  wampum — cleverly  manu- 
factured from  shells — served  as  annals,  which  the 
skilled  men  of  a  tribe  could  decipher  and  explain. 
The  wampum  belts  performed  an  important  part  in 
the  declaration  of  war  or  peace,  and  the  pipe  was 
equally  effective  in  the  deliberations  of  council  and 
in  the  profession  of  amity.  Murder  might  be  expi- 
ated by  presents  to  the  family  or  relatives  of  the 
dead,  and  crime  was  rarely  followed  by  death  except 
there  was  a  question  of  other  nations,  who  would 
not  be  content  unless  the  blood  of  their  kinsman 
was  washed  away  by  blood.  Charity  and  hospital- 
ity were  among  the  virtues  of  the  Indian  race,  espe- 
cially among  the  Iroquois,  and  while  there  was  food 
in  a  village  no  one  need  starve.  The  purity  of  love 
was  unknown  to  a  savage  nature,  chiefly  animated  by 
animal  passion.  Prisoners  were  treated  with  great 
ferocity,  but  the  Iroquois  exceeded  all  nations  in  the 
ingenuity  of  torture.  Stoicism  and  endurance,  even 
heroic,  were  characteristics  of  Indians  generally, 
when  in  the  hands  of  their  enemies,  and  the  cruel- 
lest insult  that  a  warrior  could  receive  was  to  be 
called  a  woman.  Sometimes  prisoners  were  spared 
and  adopted  into  the  tribe,  and  among  most  nations 
the  wife  or  mother  or  sister  of  a  dead  chief  might 
demand  that  he  be  replaced  by  a  prisoner  to  whom 
they  may  have  taken  a  fancy.     After  torture  parts 


CANADIAN  AND  IROQUOIS  INDIANS.         1 25 

of  the  bodies  of  the  victim  would  be  eaten  as  a  sort 
of  mystic  ceremony,  but  this  custom  was  peculiar 
to  the  Ilurons  and  Iroquois  only.  In  their  warhke 
expeditions  they  had  no  special  discipline,  and  might 
be  successfully  met  on  the  open  field  or  under  the 
protection  of  fortified  works.  Their  favourite  sys- 
tem was  a  surprise  or  furious  onslaught.  A  siege 
soon  exhausted  their  patience  and  resources.  They 
were  as  treacherous  as  they  were  brave.  In  the 
shades  of  the  forest,  whose  intricacies  and  secrets 
they  understood  so  well,  they  were  most  to  be  feared. 
Behind  every  tree  might  lurk  a  warrior,  when  once 
a  party  was  known  to  be  on  the  warpath.  To  steal 
stealthily  at  night  through  the  mazes  of  the  woods, 
tomahawk  their  sleeping  foes,  and  take  many  scalps, 
was  the  height  of  an  Indian's  bliss.  Curious  to  say, 
the  Indians  took  little  precautions  to  guard  against 
such  surprises,  but  thought  they  were  protected  by 
their  manitous  or  guardian  spirits. 

A  spirit  of  materialism  prevailed  in  all  their  super- 
stitions. They  had  no  conception  of  one  all-pervad- 
ing, omniscient  divine  being,  governing  and  watching 
over  humanity,  when  the  missionaries  first  came 
among  them.  It  was  only  by  making  use  of  their 
belief  in  the  existence  of  a  supreme  chief  for  every 
race  of  animals,  that  the  priests  could  lead  their 
converts  to  the  idea  of  a  Great  Spirit  who  ruled  all 
creation.  In  their  original  state  of  savagery  or  bar- 
barism, any  conception  an  Indian  might  have  of  a 
supernatural  being  superior  to  himself  was  frittered 
away  by  his  imagining  that  the  whole  material  world 
was  under  th^  influenipe  of  innurnerable  mysterious 


126  THE   STOKY  OF  CANADA. 

rowers.  In  the  stirring  of  the  leaves,  in  the  glint 
of  the  sunbeam  amid  the  foHage,  in  the  shadow  on 
his  path,  in  the  flash  of  the  lightning,  in  the  ^rash 
of  the  thunder,  in  the  roar  of  the  cataract,  in  the 
colours  of  the  rainbow,  in  the  very  beat  of  his  pulse, 
in  the  leap  of  the  fish,  in  the  flight  of  the  birds,  he 
saw  some  supernatural  power  to  be  evoked.  The 
Indian  companions  of  Champlain,  we  remem.ber, 
threw  tobacco  to  the  genius  or  Manitou  of  the  great 
fall  of  the  Ottawa.  The  Manitou  of  the  Algon- 
quins,  and  the  Okies  or  Otkons  of  the  Hurons  and 
Iroquois  were  not  always  superior,  mysterious  beings 
endowed  with  supernatural  powers,  like  the  Algon- 
quin Manabozho,  the  Great  Hare,  the  king  of  all 
animals;  or  a  deified  hero,  like  Hiawatha,  the  foun- 
der of  the  Iroquois  confederacy,  and  Glooscap,  the 
favourite  of  Micmac  legends.  The  Manitou  or  Oki 
might  even  be  a  stone,  a  fish-bone,  a  bird's  feather, 
or  a  serpent's  skin,  or  some  other  thing  in  the  ani- 
mate or  inanimate  world,  revealed  to  a  young  man 
in  his  dreams  as  his  fetich  or  guardian  through  life. 
Dreams  were  respected  as  revelations  from  the  spirit 
world.  As  Champlain  tells  us,  during  his  first  ex- 
pedition to  Lake  Champlain,  the  Indians  always 
questioned  him  as  to  his  dreams,  and  at  last  he  was 
able  to  tell  them  that  he  had  seen  in  a  vision  some 
Iroquois  drowning  in  the  lake,  and  wished  to  help 
them,  but  was  not  permitted  to  do  so  by  the  In- 
dians of  his  own  party.  This  dream,  in  their  opinion, 
was  a  portent  in  their  favour. 

A  fetich   became   at  last  even  the  object  of  an 
Indian's  worship — to  be  thanked,  flattered,  expostu- 


CAXADIA.V  AXn   lA'OQUO/S  //V/)/AXS.  12/ 

lated  with,  according  to  the  emergency.  It  can  be 
easily  seen  that  in  this  Indian  land  of  mysterious 
agencies,  of  nianitous  and  spirits,  the  medicine-man 
and  conjuror  exercised  a  great  power  amon«j  old  and 
younj^,  chiefs  and  women.  He  had  to  be  consulted 
in  illness,  in  peace,  in  war,  at  every  moment  of  im- 
portance to  individual  or  nation.  Even  in  case  of 
illness  and  disease  he  found  more  value  in  secret 
communications  with  the  supernatural  world,  and  in 
working  on  the  credulity  of  his  tribesmen,  than  in 
the  use  of  medicines  made  from  plants.  The  gross- 
est superstition  dominated  every  community.  All 
sorts  of  mystic  ceremonies,  some  most  cruel  and  re- 
pugnant to  every  sense  of  decency,  were  usual  on 
occasions  when  supernatural  influences  h'^d  ^o  be 
called  into  action. 

Every  respect  was  paid    to  the  dead,  \^ho  were 
supposed  to   have  gone  on  a  journey  ii    spirit 

land.  Every  one  had  such  a  separate  ocaifold  or 
grave,  generally  speaking,  as  Champiain  saw  among 
the  Ottawas,  but  it  ^v^as  the  strange  custom  of  the 
Hurons  to  collect  the  bones  of  their  dead  every  few 
years  and  immure  them  in  great  pits  or  ossuaries 
with  weirdlike  ceremonies  very  minutely  described 
in  the  Relations.  In  a  passage  previously  quoted 
Champiain  gave  credit  to  the  Indians  for  believing 
in  the  immortality  of  the  soul.  The  world  to  which 
the  Indian's  imagination  accompanied  the  dead  was 
not  the  Heaven  or  Hell  of  the  Jew  or  Christian. 
Among  some  tribes  there  was  an  impression  rather 
than  a  belief  that  a  distinction  was  made  in  the  land 
pf  the  Ponenfi^h  or  Hereafter  between  the  great  or 


128 


THE   STORY  OF  CANADA, 


useful,  and  the  weak  or  useless;  but  generally  it  was 
thought  that  all  alike  passed  to  the  Spirit  Land,  and 
carried  on  their  vocations  as  in  life.  It  was  a  Land 
of  Shades  where  trees,  flowers,  animals,  men,  and 
all  things  were  spirits. 

*'  By  midnight  moons,  o'er  moistening  clews 
In  vestments  for  the  chase  arrayed 
The  hunter  still  the  deer  pursues, 

The  hunter  and  the  deer  a  shade." 


im^^. 

^ 

1 

^B 

1 

1 

^^^fe 

^ 

1 

SKS^BidSS 

Sot 

B 

IX. 


CONVENTS    AND     HOSMTALS — VILLE-MAKIE — MAR- 
TYRED   MISSIONARIES — VICTORIOUS 
IROQUOIS — HAPLESS   IIURONS. 


(1635-1652.) 


A  SCENE  that  was  witnessed  on  the  heights  of 
Quebec  on  a  fine  June  morning,  two  hundred  and 
sixty  years  ago,  illustrated  the  spirit  that  animated 
the  founders  of  Canada.  At  the  foot  of  a  cross 
knelt  the  Governor,  Charles  Hault  de  Montmagny, 
Knight  of  Malta,  who  had  come  to  take  the  place 
of  his  great  predecessor,  Samuel  Champlain,  whose 
remains  were  buried  close  by,  if  indeed  this  very 
cross  did  not  indicate  the  spot.  Jesuits  in  their 
black  robes,  soldiers  in  their  gay  uniforms,  officials 
and  inhabitants  from  the  little  town  below%  all  fol- 
lowed the  example  of  Montmagny,  whose  first 
words  were,  according  to  Father  Le  Jeune,  the  his- 
torian of  those  days  :  "  Behold  the  first  cross  that 
I  have  seen  in  this  country,  let  us  w^orship  the 
crucified  Saviour  in  his  image."  Then,  this  act  of 
devotion  accomplished,  the  procession  entered  the 
^  129 


1 30  THE   STORY  OF  CANADA. 

little  church  dedicated  by  Champlain  to  Notre 
Dame  de  la  Recouvrance,  where  the  priests  solemnly 
chanted  the  Tc  Dcum  and  offered  up  prayers  for  the 
KiniT  of  France. 

The  Church  was  first,  the  State  second.  After 
the  service  the  new  governor  entered  the  fort  of  St. 
Louis,  only  a  few  steps  from  the  sacred  building, 
received  the  keys  amid  salutes  of  cannon  and  mus- 
ketry, and  was  of^cially  installed  as  head  of  the  civil 
and  military  government  of  Canada,  at  this  time 
controlled  by  the  Company  of  the  Hundred  Associ- 
ates. Then  he  was  called  upon  to  act  as  god-father 
for  a  dying  Indian  who  desired  baptism.  In  the 
smoky  cabin  packed  with  Indians  Montmagny  stood 
by  the  earnest  Jesuit  and  named  the  Algonquin 
Joseph.  "  I  leave  you  to  think,"  says  Father  Le 
Jeune,  "  how  greatly  astonished  were  these  people 
to  see  so  much  crimson,  so  many  handsomely 
dressed  persons  beneath  their  bark  roofs." 

During  the  period  of  which  I  am  now  writing  we 
see  the  beginnings  of  the  most  famous  educational 
and  religious  institutions  of  the  country.  The 
Hotel  Dieu  was  founded  in  1639,  by  the  Soeurs 
Hospitalieres  from  the  convent  of  St.  Augustine,  in 
Dieppe,  through  the  benefactions  of  the  Duchess 
d'Aiguillon,  the  niece  of  Cardinal  Richelieu.  Rich, 
fascinating,  and  beautiful  women  contributed  not 
only  their  fortunes  but  their  lives  to  the  service  of 
the  Church.  Marie  Madeleine  de  Chauvigny,  who 
belonged  to  a  noble  family  in  Normandy,  married 
at  a  very  early  age  a  M.  de  la  Peltrie,  who  left  her 
a  young  widow  of  twenty-two  years  of  age,  without 


MARIE    GUYARD  (MERE  MARIE  DE  L'INCARNATION). 


13t 


132  THE   STORY  OF  CANADA. 

any  children.  Deeply  attached  to  her  religion  from 
her  youth,  she  decided  to  devote  her  life  and  her 
wealth  to  the  establishment  of  an  institution  for  the 
instruction  of  girls  in  Canada.  Her  father  and 
friends  threw  all  possible  obstacles  in  the  way  of 
what  they  believed  was  utter  folly  for  a  gentle  cul- 
tured woman,  but  she  succeeded  by  female  wiles 
and  strategy  in  carrying  out  her  plans.  On  the  first 
of  August,  1639,  she  arrived  at  Quebec,  in  company 
with  Marie  Guyard,  the  daughter  of  a  silk  manufac- 
turer of  Tours,  best  known  to  Canadians  as  Mere  de 
I' Incarnation,  the  mother  superior  of  the  Ursulines, 
whose  spacious  convent  and  grounds  now  cover 
seven  acres  of  land  on  Garden  Street  in  the  an- 
cient capital.  She  had  a  vision  of  a  companion  w^ho 
was  to  accompany  her  to  a  land  of  mists  and  moun- 
tains, to  which  the  Virgin  beckoned  as  the  country 
of  her  future  life-work.  Canada  was  the  land  and 
Madame  de  la  Peltrie  the  companion  foreshadowed 
in  that  dream,  which  gave  Marie  Guyard  a  vocation 
which  she  filled  for  thirty  years  with  remarkable 
fidelity  and  ability. 

Madame  de  la  Peltrie  and  Marie  Guyard  were  ac- 
companied by  Mdlle.  de  Savonniere  de  la  Troche,  who 
belonged  to  a  distinguished  fam.ily  of  Anjou,  and  was 
afterwards  known  in  Canada  as  Mere  de  St.  Joseph, 
and  also  by  another  nun,  called  Mere  Cecile  de 
Sainte-Croix.  A  Jesuit,  Father  Vimont,  afterwards 
superior,  and  author  of  one  of  the  Relations,  and  the 
three  Hospital  sisters,  arrived  in  the  same  ship. 

The  company  landed  and  "  threw  themselves  on 
their  knees,  blessed  the  God  of  Heaven,  and  kissed 


LOiVyEXTS  AND   HOSPITALS.  I  33 

the  earth  of  their  near  country^  as  they  now  called 
it."  A  Tc  Dcum  followed  in  the  Jesuits'  church 
which  was  now  completed  on  the  heights  near  their 
college,  commenced  as  early  as  1635 — one  year 
before  the  building  of  Harvard  College — through 
the  generosity  of  Rene  Rohault,  eldest  son  of  the 
Marquis  de  Gamache.  The  first  visit  of  the  nuns 
was  to  Sillery,  four  miles  to  the  west  of  Quebec,  on 
the  north  bank  of  the  river,  where  an  institution  had 
been  established  for  the  instruction  of  the  Algon- 
quin and  other  Indians,  through  the  liberality  of 
Noel  Brulart  de  Sillery,  a  Knight  of  Malta,  and  a 
member  of  an  influential  French  family,  who  had 
taken  a  deep  interest  in  the  settlement  of  Canada 
and  proved  it  by  his  bounty.  Madame  de  la  Peltrie 
and  her  companions,  the  Jesuit  historian  tells  us 
naively,  embraced  the  little  Indian  girls  "  without 
taking  heed  whether  they  were  clean  or  not." 

It  was  during  Montmagny's  term  of  office  that 
the  city  of  Montreal  was  founded  by  a  number  of 
religious  enthusiasts.  Jerome  le  Royer  de  la  Dau- 
versiere,  receiver  of  taxes  at  La  Fl^che  in  Anjou,  a 
noble  and  devotee,  consulted  with  Jean  Jacques 
Oiier,  then  a  priest  of  St.  Sulpice  in  Paris,  as  to  the 
best  means  of  establishing  a  mission  in  Canada. 
Both  declared  they  had  visions  which  pointed  to  the 
island  of  Mont  Royal  as  the  future  scene  of  their 
labours.  They  formed  a  company  with  large  powers 
as  seigniors  as  soon  as  they  had  obtained  from  M. 
de  Lauzon,  one  of  the  members  of  the  Company  of 
Hundred  Associates,  a  title  to  the  island.  They 
interested  in  the  project  Paul  de  Chomedey,  Sieur 


134  ^^^   STORY  OF  CANADA. 

de  Maisonneuve,  a  devout  and  brave  soldier,  an 
honest  and  chivalric  gentleman,  who  was  appointed 
the  first  governor  by  the  new  company.  Mdlle. 
Jeanne  Mance,  daughter  of  the  attorney-general  of 
Nogent-le-Roi,  among  the  vine-clad  hills  of  Cham- 
pagne, who  had  bound  herself  to  perpetual  chastity 
from  a  remarkably  early  age,  gladly  joined  in  this 
religious  undertaking.  The  company  had  in  view 
the  establishment  of  communities  of  secular  priests, 
and  of  nuns  to  nurse  the  sick,  and  teach  the  children 
— the  French  as  well  as  the  savages.  Madame  de 
Bullion,  the  rich  widow  of  a  superintendent  of 
finance,  contributed  largely  towards  the  enterprise, 
and  may  be  justly  considered  the  founder  of  Hotel 
Dieu  of  Montreal. 

Maisonneuve  and  Mdlle.  Mance,  accompanied  by 
forty  men  and  four  women,  arrived  at  Quebec  in 
August,  1 64 1,  when  it  was  far  too  late  to  attempt 
an  establishment  on  the  island.  Governor  de  Mont- 
magny  and  others  at  Quebec  disapproved  of  the 
undertaking  which  had  certainly  elements  of  danger. 
The  governor  might  well  think  it  wisest  to  strengthen 
the  colony  by  an  establishment  on  the  island  of  Or- 
leans or  in  the  immediate  vicinity  of  Quebec,  instead 
of  laying  the  foundations  of  a  new  town  in  the  most 
exposed  part  of  Canada.  However,  all  these  objec- 
tions availed  nothinfj  aq-ainst  the  enthusiasm  of 
devotees.  In  the  spring  of  1642,  Maisonneuve  and 
his  company  left  Quebec.  He  was  accompanied  by 
Governor  de  Montmagny,  Father  Vimont,  superior 
of  the  Jesuits,  and  Madame  de  la  Peltrie,  who  left 
the    Ursulines   very    abruptly    and    inconsiderately 


cox  TEXTS  AXD  HOSPITALS. 


135 


under  the  conviction  that  she  had  a  mission  to  fill  at 
Mont  Royal. 

On  the  17th  May,  Maisonneuve  and  his  compan- 


PORTRAIT    OF    MAISONNEUVE. 


ions  landed  on  the  little  triangle  of  land,  the  Place 
Royale  of  Champlain,  formed  by  the  junction  of  a 
stream  with  the  St.  Lawrence.  They  fell  immedi- 
ately on  their  knees  and  gave  their  thanks  to  the 


136  THE   STORY  OF  CAXADA. 

Most  High.  After  singing  some  liymns,  they  raised 
an  altar  which  was  decorated  by  Madame  de  la  Pel- 
trie  and  Mdlle.  Mance,  and  celebrated  the  first  great 
mass  on  die  island.  Father  Vimont,  as  he  performed 
this  holy  rite  of  his  Church,  addressed  the  new  colo- 
nists with  words  which  foreshadowed  the  success  of 
the  Roman  Catholic  Church  in  the  greatest  Canadian 
city,  which  was  first  named  Ville-Marie. 

A  picket  enclosure,  mounted  with  cannon,  pro- 
tected the  humble  buildings  erected  for  the  use  of 
the  first  settlers  on  what  is  now  the  Custom-house 
Square.  The  little  stream — not  much  more  than  a 
rivulet  except  in  spring — which  for  many  years  rip- 
pled between  green,  mossy  banks,  now  struggles 
beneath  the  paved  street. 

An  obelisk  of  gray  Canadian  granite  now  stands 
on  this  historic  ground.  Madame  de  la  Peltrie  did 
not  remain  more  than  two  years  in  Ville-Marie,  but 
returned  to  the  convent  at  Quebec  which  she  had 
left  in  a  moment  of  caprice.  Mdlle.  Mance,  who 
was  Madame  de  Bullion's  friend,  remained  at  the 
head  of  the  Hotel  Dieu.  The  Sulpicians  eventually 
obtained  control  of  the  spiritual  welfare,  and  in  fact 
of  the  whole  island,  though  from  necessity  and  pol- 
icy the  Jesuits  were  at  first  in  charge.  It  was  not 
until  1653  that  one  of  the  most  admirable  figures  in 
the  religious  and  educational  history  of  Canada, 
Margaret  Bourgeoys,  a  maiden  of  Troyes,  came  to 
Ville-Marie,  and  established  the  parent  house  in 
Canada  of  the  Congregation  de  Notre-Dame,  whose 
schools  have  extended  in  the  progress  of  centuries 
from  Sydney,  on  the  island  of  Cape  Breton,  to  the 
Pacific  coast. 


CONVENTS  AND  HOSPITALS.  1 37 

Yet  during  these  years,  while  convents  and  hospi- 
tals were  founded,  while  brave  gentlemen  and  cul- 
tured women  gave  up  their  lives  to  their  country  and 
iheir  faith,  while  the  bells  were  ever  calling  their 
congregations  to  mass  and  vespers,  the  country  was 
defended  by  a  mere  handful  of  inhabitants,  huddled 
together  at  Quebec,  at  Three  Rivers,  and  at  the 
little  settlement  of  Viile-Marie.  The  canoes  of  the 
Iroquois  were  constant'/  passing  on  the  lakes  and 
rivers  of  Canada,  from  Georgian  Bay  to  the  Riche- 
lieu, and  bands  of  those  terrible  foes  of  the  French 
and  their  Indian  allies  were  ever  lurking  in  the 
woods  that  came  so  dangerously  close  to  the  white 
settlements  and  the  Indian  villages. 

In  1642,  Father  Isaac  Jogues  was  returning  from 
the  missions  on  Lake  Huron,  with  Couture,  an 
interp?  2ter,  and  Goupil,  a  young  medical  attendant 
— both  donnes  or  lay  followers  of  the  Jesuits.  They 
were  in  the  company  of  a  number  of  Hurons  who 
were  bringing  furs  to  the  traders  on  the  St.  Law- 
rence, when  the  Iroquois  surprised  them  at  the 
western  end  of  Lake  St.  Peter's.  The  prisoners 
were  taken  by  the  Richelieu  to  the  Mohawk  country 
and  Father  Jogues  was  the  first  Frenchman  to  pass 
through  Lake  George  * — with  its  picturesque  hills 
and  islets — which  in  a  subsequent  journey  he  named 
Lac  du  Saint-Sacrament,  because  he  reached  it  on 
the  eve  of  Corpus  Christi.  The  Frenchmen  were 
carried  from  village  to  village  of  the  Iroquois,  and 

*  It  was  so  called  in  1753,  after  the  reigning  sovereign  of  Eng- 
land by  an  ambitious  and  politic  Irishman,  Sir  William  Johnson, 
whose  name  is  constantly  occurring  in  the  history  of  the  wars  between 
England  and  France. 


138  TilF.   STORY  OF  CANADA. 

tortured  with  all  the  cruel  ingenuity  usual  in  such 
cases.  Goupil's  thumb  was  cut  off  with  a  clam  shell, 
as  one  way  of  prolonging  pain.  At  night  the  pris- 
oners were  stretched  on  their  backs  with  their  ankles 
and  wrists  bound  to  stakes.  Couture  was  adopted 
into  the  tribe,  and  was  found  useful  in  later  years  as 
an  intermediary  between  the  French  and  Mohawks. 
Goupil  was  murdered  and  his  body  tossed  into  a 
stream  rushing  down  a  steep  ravine.  Despite  his 
sufferings  F'ather  Jogues  never  desisted  from  his 
efforts  to  baptise  children  and  administer  the  rites 
of  his  Church  to  the  tortured  prisoners.  On  one 
occasion  he  performed  the  sacred  office  for  a  dying 
Huron  with  some  rain  or  dewdrops  which  were  still 
clinging  to  an  ear  of  green  corn  which  had  been 
thrown  to  him  for  food.  After  indescribable  mis- 
ery, he  was  taken  to  Fort  Orange,  where  the  Dutch 
helped  him  to  escape  to  France,  but  he  returned  to 
Canada  in  the  following  year. 

Bands  of  Iroquois  continued  to  wage  war  with 
relentless  fury  on  all  the  Algonquin  tribes  from  the 
Chaudiere  Falls  of  the  Ottawa  to  the  upper  waters 
of  the  Saguenay.  Bressani,  a  highly  cultured  Italian 
priest,  was  taken  prisoner  on  the  St.  Lawrence,  while 
on  his  way  to  the  Huron  missions,  and  carried  to  the 
Mohawk  villages,  where  he  went  through  the  cus- 
tomary ordeal  of  torture.  He  was  eventually  given 
to  an  old  woman  who  had  lost  a  member  of  her  fam- 
ily, but  when  she  saw  his  maimed  hands — one  split 
between  the  little  finger  and  the  ring-finger — she 
sent  him  to  the  Dutch,  who  ransomed  and  sent  him 
to  France,  whence  he  came  back  like  Jogues,  a  year 
later. 


Martyred  AfissioNAK/Es.  139 

In  1645  the  Mohawks  made  peace  with  the  French, 
but  the  other  members  of  the  Five  Nations  refused 
to  be  bound  by  the  treaty.  Father  Isaac  Jogues  ven- 
tured into  their  country  in  1646,  and  after  a  success- 
ful negotiation  returned  to  consult  the  governor  at 
Quebec;  but  unhappily  for  him  he  left  behind  a 
small  box,  filled  with  some  necessaries  of  his  simple 
life,  with  which  he  did  not  wish  to  encumber  him- 
self on  this  flying  visit.  The  medicine-men  or  sor- 
cerers, who  always  hated  the  missionaries  as  the 
enemies  of  their  vile  superstitious  practices,  made 
the  Indians  believe  that  this  box  contained  an  evil 
spirit  which  was  the  origin  of  disease,  misfortune, 
and  death.  When  Father  Jogues  came  back,  he 
found  the  village  divided  into  two  parties — one 
wishing  his  death,  the  other  inclined  to  show  him 
mercy,  and  after  infinite  wrangling  betw^een  the  fac- 
tions, he  was  suddenly  killed  by  a  blow  from  a  toma- 
hawk as  he  was  entering  a  long-house,  to  attend  a 
feast  to  which  he  had  been  invited.  His  body  was 
treated  with  contumely,  and  his  head  affixed  to  a 
post  of  the  palisades  of  the  village.  He  was  the 
first  martyr  who  suffered  death  at  the  hands  of  the 
Iroquois. 

The  **  black  robe  "  was  now  to  be  seen  in  every 
Indian  community  of  Canada;  among  the  Hurons 
and  Algonquins  as  far  as  Lake  Huron,  among  the 
White  Fish  tribe  at  the  head-waters  of  the  Sague- 
nay,  and  even  among  the  Abenakis  of  the  Kenne- 
bec. Father  Gabriel  Druilletes,  who  had  served  an 
apprenticeship  among  the  Montagnais,  was  in  charge 
of  this  Abenaki  mission,  and  in  the  course  of  years 


140  THE   STONY  OF  CAATADA, 

visited  Boston,  Plymouth,  iind  Sidcm,  in  the  inter- 
ests of  the  Canadian  French,  who  wished  to  enter 
into  commercial  relations  with  New  England,  and 
also  induce  its  governments  to  enter  into  an  alli- 
ance against  the  Iroquois.  The  authorities  of  the 
New  England  confederacy  eventually  refused  to 
evoke  the  hostility  of  the  dangerous  Five  Nations. 
Father  Druilletes,  howev^er,  won  for  Canada  the 
enduring  friendship  of  the  Abenakis,  as  Acadian 
history  shows. 

It  is  impossible  within  the  limited  space  of  this 
chapter  to  give  any  accurate  idea  of  the  spirit  of 
patience,  zeal,  and  self-sacrifice  which  the  Jesuit 
Fathers  exhibited  in  their  missions  among  the  hap- 
less Hurons.  For  years  they  found  these  Indians 
very  suspicious  of  their  efforts  to  teach  the  lessons 
of  their  faith.  It  was  only  with  difficulty  the  mis- 
sionaries could  baptise  little  children.  They  would 
give  sugared  water  to  a  child,  and,  apparently  by 
accident,  drop  some  on  its  head,  and  at  the  same 
time  pronounce  the  sacramental  words.  Some 
Indians  believed  for  a  loner  time  that  the  books  and 
strings  of  beads  were  the  embodiment  of  witchcraft. 
But  the  persistency  of  the  priests  was  at  last  re- 
warded by  the  conversion,  or  at  all  events  the  sem- 
blance of  conversion,  of  large  numbers  of  Hurons. 
It  would  seem,  according  as  their  fears  of  the  Iro- 
quois increased,  the  Hurons  gave  greater  confidence 
to  the  French,  and  became  more  dependent  on  their 
counsel.  In  fact,  in  some  respects,  they  lost  their 
spirit  of  self-reliance.  In  some  villages  the  converts 
at  last  exceeded  the  number  of   unbelievers.     By 


MARTYR  BID  M/SSlOX ARIES,  I4I 

1647  there  were  eighteen  priests  engaged  in  the  work 
of  eleven  missions,  chiefly  in  the  Huron  country,  but 
also  among  the  Algoncjuin  tribes  on  the  east  and 
northeast  of  Lake  Huron  or  at  the  outlet  of  Lake 
Superior.  Each  mission  had  its  little  chapel,  and  a 
bell,  generally  hanging  on  a  tree.  One  central  mis- 
sion house  had  been  built  at  Ste.  Marie  close  to  a 
little  river,  now  known  as  the  Wye,  which  falls  into 
Thunder  Bay,  an  inlet  of  Matchcdash  Bay.  This 
was  a  fortified  station  in  the  form  of  a  parallel- 
ogram, constructed  partly  of  masonry,  and  partly  of 
wooden  palisades,  strengthened  by  two  bastions 
containing  magazines.  The  chapel  and  its  pictures 
attracted  the  special  admiration  of  the  Indians, 
whose  imagination  was  at  last  reached  by  the  em- 
bellished ceremonies  of  the  Jesuits'  church.  The 
priests,  thoroughly  understanding  the  superstitious 
character  of  the  Indians,  made  a  lavish  use  of  pic- 
torial representations  of  pain  and  sufferings  and 
rewards,  allotted  to  bad  and  good.  Father  Le 
Jeune  tells  us  that  "  such  holy  pictures  are  most 
useful  object-lessons  for  the  Indians."  On  one 
occasion  he  made  a  special  request  for  **  three,  four, 
or  five  devils,  tormenting  a  soul  with  a  variety  of 
punishments — one  using  fire,  another  serpents,  and 
another  pincers. "  The  mission  house  was  also  con- 
stantly full  of  Indians,  not  simply  enjoying  these 
pictures,  but  participating  also  in  the  generous  hos- 
pitality of  the  Fathers. 

It  was  in  1648  that  the  first  blow  descended  on 
this  unhappy  people  who  were  in  three  years'  time 
to  be  blotted  out  as  a  warlike,    united    nation    in 


142  THE   arOKY  OF  CANADA. 

America.  In  that  year  the  Iroquois  attacked  the 
mission  of  St.  Joseph  (Teanaustaye),  fifteen  miles 
from  Stc.  Marie,  where  in  1638  a  famous  Iroquois, 
Ononkwaya,  had  beiMi  tortured.  All  the  people  had 
been  massacred  or  taken  prisoners  in  the  absence  of 
the  warriors  who  were  mostly  in  pursuit  of  a  band 
of  Iroquois.  Father  Daniel,  arrayed  in  the  vest- 
ments of  his  vocation,  was  among  the  first  to  fall  a 
victim  to  the  furious  savages,  who  instantly  cast  his 
body  into  the  flames  of  his  burning  chapel,—  a  fitting 
pyre  for  the  brave  soldier  of  the  Cross.  St.  Ignace, 
St.  Louis,  and  other  missions  were  attacked  early  in 
the  following  year.  Fathers  Jean  de  Brebeuf  and 
Gabriel  Lalemant  were  tortured  and  murdered  at  St. 
Ignace.  From  village  after  village  the  shrieks  of 
helpless  women  and  men  and  children,  tied  to  stakes 
in  burning  houses,  ascended  to  a  seemingly  pitiless 
Heaven.  Many  persons  were  tortured  on  the  spot, 
but  as  many  or  more  reserved  for  the  spoil  of  the 
Iroquois  villages.  Father  Brebeuf  was  bound  to  a 
stake,  and  around  his  neck  was  thrown  a  necklace  of 
red-hot  tomahawks.  They  cut  off  his  lower  lip,  and 
thrust  a  heated  iron  rod  down  his  throat.  It  was 
doubtless  their  delight  to  force  a  groan  or  complaint 
from  this  stalwart  priest,  whose  towering  and  noble 
figure  had  always  been  the  admiration  of  the  Cana- 
dian Indians,  but  both  he  and  Lalemant,  a  rela- 
tively feeble  man,  showed  themselves  as  brave  as  the 
most  courageous  Indian  warriors  under  similar  con- 
ditions. 

When  a  party  from  Ste.   Marie  came  a  few  days 
later  to  the  ruins  of  St.  Ignace,  they  found  the  tor- 


HAPLESS  HUROXS.  143 

tured  bodies  of  the  dead  missionaries  on  the  ground, 
and  carried  them  to  the  mission  house,  where  they 
were  buried  in  sacred  earth.  Tlie  skull  of  the 
generous,  whole-souled  Ikebeuf  is  still  to  be  seen 
within  a  silver  bust  in  the  Hotel  Dicu  of  Quebec. 
Father  Garnier  was  killed  at  the  mission  of  St.  Jean 
(Etarita),  in  the  raids  which  the  Iroquois  made  at  a 
later  time  on  the  Tobacco  Nation,  the  kindred  of 
the  Hurons.  Father  Chabanel,  who  was  on  his  way 
from  St.  Jean  to  Ste.  Marie,  was  never  heard  of,  and 
it  is  generally  believed  that  he  was  treacherously 
killed  and  robbed  by  a  Huron. 

The  Hurons  were  still  numerous  despite  the  losses 
they  had  suffered — counting  even  then  more  families 
ti^an  the  Five  Nations — but  as  they  looked  on  the 

'.king  ruins  of  their  villages  and  thought  of  the 
uTi  n.ig  hatred  which  had  followed  them  for  so  many 
*hey  lost  all  courage  and  decided  to  scatter 
i.w.  seek  new  homes  elsewhere.  Father  Rague- 
neau,  the  superior  of  the  Jesuits,  after  consultation 
with  the  F'athers  and  Frenchmen  at  Ste.  Marie, 
some  fifty  persons  altogether,  felt  they  could  no 
longer  safely  remain  in  their  isolated  position  when 
the  Hurons  had  left  the  country.  They  removed 
all  their  goods  to  the  Isle  of  St.  Joseph,  now  one  of 
the  Christian  Islands,  near  the  entrance  of  Matche- 
dash  Bay,  where  they  erected  a  fortified  post  for  the 
protection  of  several  thousand  Hurons  who  had 
sought  refuge  here.  Before  many  months  passed, 
the  Hurons  believed  that  their  position  would  be 
untenable  when  the  Iroquois  renev.^ed  their  attacks, 
and  determined  to  leave  the  island.    Some  ventured 


144  THE   STORY  OF  CANADA. 

even  among  the  Iroquois  and  were  formally  received 
into  the  Senecas  and  other  tribes.  A  remnant 
remained  a  few  months  longer  on  the  island,  but 
they  soon  left  for  Quebec  after  killing  some  thirty 
of  the  bravest  Iroquois  warriors,  who  had  attempted 
to  obtain  possession  of  the  fort  by  a  base  act  of 
^  treachery.  A  number  belonging  to  the  Tobacco 
Nation  eventually  reached  the  upper  waters  of  the 
Mississippi  where  they  met  the  Sioux,  or  Dacotahs, 
a  fierce  nation  belonging  to  a  family  quite  distinct 
from  the  Algonquins  and  Iroquois,  and  generally 
found  wandering  between  the  head-waters  of  Lake 
Superior  and  the  Falls  cf  St.  Anthony.  After  vari- 
ous vicissitudes  these  Hurons  scattered,  but  some 
found  their  rest  by  the  side  of  the  Detroit  River, 
where  they  have  been  always  known  as  Wyandots. 
Some  three  hundred  Hurons,  old  and  young,  left 
St.  Joseph  for  Quebec,  where  they  were  most  kindly 
received  and  given  homes  on  the  western  end  of  the 
Isle  of  Orleans,  where  the  Jesuits  built  a  fort  for 
their  security ;  but  even  here,  as  we  shall  see,  the 
Iroquois  followed  them,  and  they  were  eventually 
forced  to  hide  themselves  under  the  guns  of  Quebec. 
War  and  disease  soon  thinned  them  out,  while  not  a 
few  cast  in  their  lot  with  the  Iroquois  w^ho  were  at 
last  themselves  seeking  recruits.  The  Huron  rem- 
nant finally  found  a  resting-place  at  Lorette  on  the 
banks  of  the  St.  Charles,  a  few  miles  from  the  heights 
of  the  Capital. 

The  only  memorials  now  in  Canada  of  a  once 
powerful  people,  that  numbered  at  least  twenty 
thousand  souls  before  the  time  of  their  ruin  and  dis- 


HAPLESS  IfURONS. 


I4S 


pension,  arc  a  remnant  still  retaining  the  language 
of  their  tribe  on  the  banks  of  the  Detroit ;  a  larger 
settlement  on  the  banks  of  the  St.  Charles,  but 
without  the  distinguishing  characteristics  of  their 
ancestors  who  came  there  from  Isle  St.  Joseph;  the 
foundations  of  the  old  mission  house  of  Ste. 
Marie,  and  the  remarkable  graves  and  ossuaries 
which  interest  the  student  and  antiquary  as  thej^ 
wander  in  the  summer-time  through  the  picturesque 
country  where  the  nation  was  once  supreme. 


lO 


X. 


YEARS     OF    GLOOM— THE    KING     COMES     TO 

THE    RESCUE    OF    CANADA — THE 

IROQUOIS    HUMHLKO. 

(1652    1667.) 

It  was  noon  on  the  20th  May,  1656,  when  the 
residents  of  Quebec  were  startled  by  the  remarkable 
spectacle  of  a  lon^  line  of  bark  canoes  drawn  up  on 
the  river  immediately  in  front  of  the  town.  They 
could  hear  the  shouts  of  the  Mohawk  warriors  making 
boast  of  the  murder  and  capture  of  unhappy  Hu- 
rons,  whom  they  had  surprised  on  the  Isle  of  Orleans 
close  by.  The  voices  of  Huron  girls — "  the  very 
flower  of  the  tribe,"  says  the  Jesuit  narrator — were 
raised  in  plaintive  chants  at  th','  rude  command  of 
their  savage  captors,  who  even  forced  them  to  dance 
in  sight  of  the  French,  on  whose  protection  they 
had  relied.  The  governor,  M.  de  Lauzon,  a  weak, 
incapable  man,  only  noted  for  his  greed,  was  per- 
fectly paralysed  at  a  scene  without  example,  even 
in  those  days  of  terror,  when  the  Iroquois  were 
virtually  masters  of  the  St.  Lawrence  valley  from 
Huron  to  Gasp^. 

146 


YEAA\S  OF  GLOOM.  147 

At  this  very  time  a  number  of  F*renchmen — 
probably  fifty  in  all — were  in  the  power  of  the 
Iroquois,  and  the  governor  had  no  nerve  to  make 
even  an  eff(jrt  to  save  the  Ilurons  from  their  fate. 
To  understand  the  situation  of  affairs,  it  is  neces- 
sary to  go  back  for  a  few  years.  After  the  dis- 
persion of  the  Ilurons,  the  Iroquois,  principally 
the  Mohawks,  became  bolder  than  ever  on  the  St. 
Lawrence.  M.  du  Plessis-Bochat,  the  governor  of 
Three  Rivers,  lost  his  life  in  a  courageous  but  ill- 
advised  attempt  to  chastise  a  band  of  warriors  that 
were  in  ambush  not  far  from  the  fort.  Father 
Buteux  was  killed  on  his  way  to  his  mission  of 
the  Attikamegs  or  White  I^'ish  tribe,  at  the  head- 
waters of  the  St.  Maurice.  In  1653,  l^^ither  Poucet 
was  carried  off  to  a  Mohawk  village,  where  he  was 
tortured  in  the  usual  fashion,  and  then  sent  back  to 
Canada  with  offers  of  peace.  The  Senecas  and 
Cayugas  were  then  busily  engaged  in  exterminating 
the  Eries,  who  had  burned  one  of  their  most  famous 
chiefs,  whose  last  words  at  the  stake  were  prophetic : 
**  Eries,  you  burn  in  mc  an  entire  nation  !  " 

A  peace,  or  rather  a  truce,  was  declared  formally 
in  the  fall  of  1653.  Then,  at  the  request  of  the 
Onondagas,  Father  Simon  le  Moyne,  a  missionary 
of  great  tact  and  courage,  who  was  the  first  French- 
man to  ascend  the  St.  Lawrence  as  far  as  the  Thou- 
sand Isles,  ventured  into  the  Irocjuois  country,  where 
he  soon  became  a  favourite.  As  a  result  of  the  nego- 
tiations which  followed  this  mission.  Governor  de 
Lauzon  was  persuaded  to  send  a  colony  to  the  vil- 
lages of  the  Onondagas.    This  colony  was  composed 


148  THE   STORY  OF  CANADA. 

of  Captain  Dupuy,  an  officer  of  the  garrison,  ten 
soldiers,  and  between  thirty  and  forty  volunteers. 
Father  Dablon,  who  had  previously  gone  with 
Father  Chaumonot  among  the  Onondagas,  and  had 
brought  back  the  request  for  a  colony,  accompanied 
the  expedition,  which  left  Quebec  in  the  month  of 
June,  1656.  On  the  way  up  the  river  the  Onon- 
dagas were  attacked  by  a  band  of  Mohawks,  when 
the  boats  carrying  the  French  had  gone  ahead  and 
were  not  within  sight.  Some  of  the  Onondagas  were 
killed  and  wounded,  and  then  the  Mohawks  found 
out  that  they  had  surprised  and  injured  warriors 
belonging  to  a  tribe  of  their  own  confederacy. 
They  endeavoured  to  explain  this  very  serious  act  of 
hostility  against  their  own  friends  and  allies  by  the 
excuse  that  they  had  mistaken  them  for  Hurons, 
whom  they  were  on  the  way  to  attack.  There  is 
little  doubt  that  they  well  understood  the  character 
of  the  expedition,  and  attacked  it  through  envy  of 
the  success  of  the  Onondagas  in  obtaining  the  set- 
tlement of  Frenchmen  in  their  villages. 

When  the  Mohawks  had  made  their  explanations, 
they  allowed  the  angry  Onondagas  to  proceed  on 
their  journey,  while  they  themselves  went  on  to 
Quebec  where,  as  we  have  already  seen,  they  showed 
their  contempt  of  the  French  by  assailing  the  Hu- 
rons under  the  very  guns  of  the  fort  of  St.  Louis. 
As  soon  as  the  French  colony  arrived  at  the  Onon- 
daga villages,  they  took  possession  of  the  country 
in  the  name  of  Jesus.  On  an  eminence  overlooking 
the  lake  they  erected  the  mission  of  St.  Mary  of 
Gannentaha,  the  correct  Irocjuois  name  for  Onondaga, 


YEAh'S  OF  GLOOM,  -^9 

in  the  vicinity  of  the  present  city  of  Syracuse.  The 
Onondagas  generally  appeared  delighted  at  the  pres- 
ence of  the  French,  though  at  this  very  time  the 
Mohawks  continued  to  paddle  up  and  down  the  St. 
Lawrence  to  the  consternation  of  the  French  and 
Canadian  Indians  alike.  The  Jesuit  priest  Garreau 
was  killed  in  one  of  these  excursions  while  accom- 
panying a  party  of  Ottawas    to  Lake  Superior. 

The  colonists  at  Gannentaha  at  last  found  that  their 
ow^n  lives  were  threatened  by  a  conspiracy  to  destroy 
them,  but  they  succeeded  in  deceiving  the  Indians 
and  in  escaping  to  Canada  in  the  m.onth  of  March, 
after  living  only  two  years  among  the  Onondagas. 
Whilst  the  Indians  were  sleeping  away  the  effects  of 
one  of  those  mystic  feasts,  at  which  they  invariably 
stuffed  themselves  to  repletion,  the  Frenchmen  es- 
caped at  night  and  reached  the  Oswego  River,  which 
they  successfully  descended  by  the  aid  of  fiat-boats 
which  they  had  secretly  constructed  after  the  dis- 
covery of  the  plot.  The  party  reached  the  French 
settlement  with  the  loss  of  three  men,  drowned  in  the 
descent  of  the  rapids  of  the  St.  Lawrence,  probably 
the  Cedars.  The  enterprise  was  most  hazardous  at 
this  season  when  the  ice  had  to  be  broken  on  the 
rivers  before  the  boats  could  be  used.  But  this  very 
fact  had  its  advantage,  since  the  bark  canoes  of  the 
Indians  would  have  been  useless  had  they  followed 
the  party.  This  exploit  is  one  of  the  most  remark- 
able ever  performed  by  the  French  in  those  early 
days,  and  shows  of  wh^t  excellent  material  those 
pioneers  of  French  colonisation  were  made. 

In  the  spring  of  1660  it  was  discovered  that  an 


150  THE   STORY  OF  CAXADA. 

m 

organised  attack  was  to  be  made  on  all  the  settle- 
ments by  a  large  force  of  over  a  thousand  Iroquois, 
who  were  to  assemble  at  the  junction  of  the  Ottawa 
and  St.  Lawrence  Yivers.  It  is  stated  on  credible 
authority  that  Montreal — Canada  in  fact — was  saved 
at  this  critical  juncture  by  the  heroism  of  a  few 
devoted  Frenchmen.  Among  the  officers  of  the 
little  garrison  that  then  protected  Montreal,  was 
Adam  Daulac  or  Dollard,  Sieur  des  Ormeaux,  who 
obtained  leave  from  Maisonneuve,  the  governor,  to 
lead  a  party  of  volunteers  against  the  Iroquois,  who 
were  wintering  in  large  numbers  on  the  upper  Ot- 
tawa. Sixteen  brave  fellows,  whose  names  are  all 
recorded  in  the  early  records  of  Montreal,  took  a 
solemn  oath  to  accept  and  give  no  quarter,  and  after 
settling  their  private  affairs  and  receiving  the  sacra- 
ment, they  set  out  on  their  mission  of  inevitable 
death.  Dollard  and  his  band  soon  reached  the  im- 
petuous rapids  of  the  Long  Sault  of  the  Ottawa, 
destined  to  be  their  Thermopylae.  There,  among 
the  woods,  they  found  an  old  circular  inclosure  of 
logs,  w^hich  had  been  built  by  some  Indians  for  de- 
fensive purposes.  This  was  only  a  wretched  bulwark, 
but  the  Frenchmen  w^ere  in  a  state  of  exalted  enthu- 
siasm, and  proceeded  to  strengthen  it.  Only  two  or 
three  days  after  their  arrival,  they  heard  that  the 
Iroquois  were  descending  the  river.  The  first  attacks 
of  the  Iroquois  were  repulsed,  and  then  they  sent 
out  scouts  to  bring  up  a  large  force  of  five  hundred 
warriors  w-ho  were  at  the  mouth  of  the  Richelieu. 
In  the  meantime  they  continued  harassing  the  in- 
mates of  the  fort,  who  were  suffering  for  food  and 


y^A/^S  OF  GLOOM.  \%\ 

Watef.  A  band  of  Hurons  who  had  joined  the 
French  just  before  the  arrival  of  the  Iroquois,  now 
deserted  them,  with  the  exception  of  their  chief,  who 
as  well  as  four  Al<^onquins,  remained  faithful  to  the 
end.  The  forests  soon  resounded  with  the  yells  of 
the  Iroquois,  when  reinforced.  Still  DoUard  and  his 
brave  companions  never  faltered,  but  day  after  day 
beat  back  the  astonished  assailants,  who  knew  the 
weakness  of  the  defenders,  and  had  anticipated  an 
easy  victory.  At  last  a  general  assault  was  made, 
and  in  the  struggle  Dollard  was  killed.  Even  then 
the  survivors  kept  up  the  fight,  and  when  the  Iro- 
quois stood  within  the  inclosure  there  was  no  one 
to  meet  them.  Four  Frenchmen,  still  alive,  were 
picked  up  from  the  pile  of  corpses.  Three  of  these 
were  instantly  burned,  while  the  fourth  was  reserved 
for  continuous  torture  a  day  or  so  later.  The  faith- 
less Hurons  gained  nothing  by  their  desertion,  for 
they  were  put  to  death,  with  the  exception  of  five 
who  eluded  their  captors,  and  took  an  account  of 
this  remarkable  episode  to  the  French  at  Montreal. 
The  Iroquois  were  obviously  amazed  at  the  courage 
of  a  few  Frenchmen,  and  decided  to  give  up,  for 
the  present,  their  project  of  attacking  settlements 
defended  by  men  so  dauntless. 

Even  the  forces  of  nature  seemed  at  this  time  to 
conspire  against  the  unfortunate  colony.  A  remark- 
able earthquake,  the  effects  of  which  can  still  be 
seen  on  the  St.  Lawrence, — at  picturesque  Les 
Eboulements,  w^hich  means  "  earth  slips,"  for  in- 
stance,— commenced  in  the  month  of  February,  1663, 
and  did  not  cease  entirely  until  the  following  summer. 


152  THE   STORY  OF  CANADA. 

Fervent  appeals  for  assistance  were  made  to  the 
Kin^r  by  I'icrre  l^ouchcr,  the  governor  of  Three 
Rivers,  by  Monseigneur  Laval,  the  first  bishop,  by 
the  Jesuit  Fathers,  and  by  the  governors  of  New 
France,  especially  by  M.  d'Avaugour,  who  recom- 
mended that  three  thousand  soldiers  be  sent  to  the 
colony,  and  allowed  to  become  settlers  after  a  cer- 
tain term  of  service.  By  1663,  the  total  population 
of  Canada  did  not  exceed  two  thousand  souls,  the 
large  majority  of  whom  were  at  Quebec,  IVIontreal, 
and  Three  Rivers.  It  was  at  the  risk  of  their  lives 
that  men  ventured  beyond  the  guns  of  Montreal. 
The  fur-trade  was  in  the  hands  of  monopolists.  The 
people  could  not  raise  enough  food  to  feed  them- 
selves, but  had  to  depend  on  the  French  ships  to  a 
large  extent.  The  Company  of  the  Hundred  Asso- 
ciates had  been  found  quite  unequal  to  the  work  of 
settling  and  developing  the  country,  or  providing 
adequate  means  of  defence.  Under  the  advice  of 
the  great  Colbert,  the  King,  young  Louis  Ouatorze, 
decided  to  assume  the  control  of  New  France  and 
make  it  a  royal  province.  The  immediate  result  of 
the  new  policy  was  the  coming  of  the  Marquis  de 
Tracy,  a  veteran  soldier,  as  lieutenant-general,  with 
full  powers  to  inquire  into  the  state  of  Canada.  He 
arrived  at  Quebec  on  the  30th  June,  1665,  attended 
by  a  brilliant  retinue.  The  Carignan-Salieres  Regi- 
ment, which  had  distinguished  itself  against  the 
Turks,  was  also  sent  as  a  proof  of  the  intention  of 
the  King  to  defend  his  long-neglected  colony.  In 
a  few  weeks,  more  than  two  thousand  persons,  sol- 
diers and  settlers,  had  come  to  Canada.     Among 


RESCUE    OE  CAiVADA.  1 53 

the  number  were  M.  tie  Courcelles,  the  first  gover- 
nor, and  M.  Talon,  the  first  intendant,  under  the 
new  regime.  Both  were  fond  of  state  and  ceremony, 
and  the  French  taste  of  the  Canadians  was  now 
gratified  by  a  plentiful  display  of  gold  lace,  ribbons, 
wigs,  ornamented  swords,  and  slouched  hats.  Prob- 
ably the  most  interesting  feature  of  the  immigration 
was  the  number  of  young  women  as  wives  for  the 
bachelors — as  the  future  mothers  of  a  Canadian 
people. 

The  new  authorities  went  energetically  to  work. 
The  fortifications  at  Quebec,  Three  Rivers,  and 
Montreal  v/ere  strengthened,  and  four  new  forts 
erected  from  the  mouth  of  the  Richelieu  to  Isle  La 
Mothe  on  Lake  Champlain.  The  Iroquois  saw  the 
significance  of  this  new  condition  of  things.  The 
Onondagas,  led  by  Garacontie,  a  friend  of  the  Jesu- 
its, made  overtures  of  peace,  which  were  favourably 
heard  by  "  Onontio,"  as  the  governor  of  Canada 
had  been  called  ever  since  the  days  of  Montmagny, 
whose  name,  "  Great  Mountain,"  the  Iroquois  so 
translated.  The  Mohawks,  the  most  dangerous  tribe, 
sent  no  en\  ys,  and  Courcelles,  in  the  inclement 
month  of  January,  went  into  their  country  with  a 
large  force  of  regular  soldiers  and  fur  hunters,  but 
missed  the  trail  to  their  villages,  and  found  himself 
at  the  Dntch  settlements,  where  he  learned,  to  his 
dismay,  that  the  English  had  become  the  possessors 
of  the  New  Netherlands.  On  its  return,  the  expedi- 
tion suffered  terribly  from  the  severe  cold,  and  lost 
a  number  of  persons  who  were  killed  by  the  Indians, 
always  hovering  in   the  rear.     The  Mohawks  then 


154  THE   STORY  OF  CAXADA. 

thought  it  prudent  to  send  a  deputation  to  treat  for 
peace,  but  the  Marquis  de  Tracy  and  Governor  de 
Courcelies  were  suspicious  of  their  good  faith,  and 
sent  a  Jesuit  priest  to  their  country  to  ascertain  the 
real  sentiment  of  the  tribe.  lie  was  recalled,  while 
on  the  way,  on  account  of  the  news  that  several 
French  officers — one  of  them  a  relative  of  the 
lieutenant-general — had  been  murdered  by  the 
Mohawks.  The  lieutenant-general  and  governor  at 
once  organised  a  powerful  expedition  of  the  regular 
forces  and  Canadian  inhabitants — some  thirteen 
hundred  in  all — who  left  Quebec,  with  those  two 
distinguished  officers  in  command,  on  the  day  of 
the  Exaltation  of  the  Cross,  the  14th  September, 
1666,  as  every  effort  was  made  to  give  a  religious 
aspect  to  an  army,  intended  to  avenge  the  death  of 
martyred  missionaries,  as  well  as  to  afford  Canada 
some  guarantees  of  peace.  It  took  the  expedition 
nearly  a  month  to  reach  the  first  village  of  the  Mo- 
hawks, but  only  to  find  it  deserted.  It  was  the 
same  result  in  three  other  villages  visited  by  the 
French.  The  Mohawks  had  made  preparations  for 
defence,  but  their  courage  failed  them  as  they 
heard  of  the  formidable  character  of  the  force  that 
bad  come  into  the  country.  They  deserted  their 
homes  and  great  stores  of  provisions.  Villages  and 
pro^asions  v/ere  burned,  and  the  Iroquois  saw  only 
ashes  when  they  returned  after  the  departure  of  the 
French.  It  was  a  great  blow  to  these  formidable 
foes  of  the  French.  Peace  was  soon  made  between 
the  Five  Nations  and  the  French.  The  Marquis  de 
Tracy  then  returned  to  France,  and  for  twenty  years 


THE  IROQUOIS  HUMBLED. 


155 


Canada  had  a  respite  from  the  raids  which  had  so 
seriously  disturbed  her  tranquillity,  and  was  enabled 
at  last  to  organise  her  new  government,  extend  her 
settlements,  and  develop  her  strength  for  days  of 
future  trial. 


CANADA     AS     A    ROYAL     PROVINCE — CHURCH    AND 

STATE. 

(1663-1759.) 

We  have  now.  come  to  that  period  of  Canadian 
history  when  the  poHtical  and  social  conditions  of 
the  people  assumed  those  forms  which  they  retained, 
with  a  few  modifications  from  time  to  time,  during 
the  whole  of  the  French  regime.  Four  men  now 
made  a  permanent  impress  on  the  struggling  colony 
so  long  neglected  by  the  French  Government.  First, 
was  the  King,  Louis  Quatorze,  then  full  of  the  arro- 
gance and  confidence  of  a  youthful  prince,  imbued 
with  the  most  extravagant  idea  of  his  kingly  at- 
tributes. By  his  side  was  the  great  successor  of 
Mazarin,  Jean  Baptiste  Colbert,  whose  knowledge  of 
finance,  earnest  desire  to  foster  the  best  resources  of 
the  kingdom,  acknowledged  re^'titude,  as  well  as 
admirable  tact,  gave  him  not  <m  ly  great  influence 
in  France,  but  enabled  him  to  sway  the  mind  of  the 
autocratic  king  at  most  critical  junc'  xr  s.  Happily 
for  Colbert  and  Canada,  Louis  was  a  most  industri- 

156 


CANADA   AS  A   ROYAL  PROVINCE,  1 57 

ous  as  well  as  pleasure-seeking  sovereign,  and  studied 
the  documents,  which  his  various  servants,  from 
Colbert  to  the  intendants  in  the  colonies,  sent  him 
from  time  to  time  respecting  their  affairs. 

In  Canada  itself  the  great  minister  had  the  aid  of 
the  ablest  intendant  ever  sent  by  the  King  to  Can- 
ada. This  was  Jean  Baptiste  Talon,  who  was  not 
inferior  to  Colbert  for  his  knowledge  of  commerce 
and  fina!ice,  and  clearness  of  intellect. 

We  see  also  in  the  picture  of  those  times  the 
piercing  eyes  and  prominent  nose  of  the  ascetic  face 
of  the  eminent  divine  who,  even  more  than  Colbert 
and  Talon,  has  moulded  the  opinions  of  the  Cana- 
dian people  in  certain  important  respects  down  to 
the  present  time.  Monseigneur  Laval  was  known 
in  France  as  the  Abbe  de  Montigny,  and  when  the 
Jesuits  induced  him  to  come  to  Canada  he  was  ap- 
pointed grand  vicar  by  the  Pope,  with  the  title  of 
Bishop  of  Petroea. 

Before  the  Canadian  bishops  and  their  agents  in 
France  decided  on  the  Abbe  de  Montigny  as  a 
bishop  they  had  made  an  experiment  with  the 
Abbe  Queylus,  one  of  the  four  Suipician  priests  who 
came  to  Montreal  in  1657,  to  look  after  the  spiritual, 
and  subsequently  its  temporal,  interests.  The  Abbe 
had  been  appointed  vicar-general  of  Canada  by  the 
Archbishop  of  Rouen,  who  claimed  a  certain  eccle- 
siastical jurisdiction  in  the  country,  and  the  Jesuits 
at  Quebec  were  at  first  disposed  to  make  him  bishop 
had  they  found  him  sufficiently  ductile.  After  some 
experience  of  his  opinions  and  character,  they  came 
to  the  conclusion  that  he  was  not  a  friend  of  their 


158  THE    STORY  OF  CANADA. 

order,  and  used  all  their  influence  thenceforth  to 
drive  him  from  Canada.  Then  they  chose  the  Abb6 
de  Montigny,  between  whom  and  the  Abbe  Queylus 
there  ensued  a  conflict  of  authority,  which  ended 
eventually  in  the  defeat  of  the  latter,  as  well  as  of 
the  Archbishop  of  Rouen.  The  Abbe,  divested  of 
his  former  dignity  and  pretensions,  returned  in  later 
years  to  the  island  of  Montreal,  of  which  the  Sulpi- 
cians  had  become  the  seigniorial  proprietors,  w^hen 
the  original  company  were  too  weak  to  carry  out  the 
objects  of  their  formation.  The  same  order  remains 
in  possession  of  their  most  valuable  lands  in  the  city 
and  island,  where  their  seminary  for  the  education  of 
priests  and  youth  generally  occupies  a  high  position 
among  the  educational  institutions  of  the  province. 

Bishop  Laval  was  endowed  with  an  inflexible  will, 
and  eminently  fitted  to  assert  those  ultramontane 
principles  which  would  make  all  temporal  power  sub- 
ordinate to  the  Pope  and  his  vicegerents  on  earth. 
His  claim  to  take  precedence  even  of  the  governor 
on  certain  public  occasions  indicates  the  extremes 
to  which  this  resolute  dignitary  of  the  Church  was 
prepared  to  go  on  behalf  of  its  supremacy. 

No  question  can  be  raised  as  to  Bishop  Laval's 
charity  and  generosity.  He  accumulated  no  riches 
for  himself — he  spent  nothing  on  the  luxuries, 
hardly  anything  on  the  conveniences  of  life,  but 
gave  freely  to  the  establishment  of  those  famous 
seminaries  at  Quebec,  which  have  been  ever  since 
identified  with  the  religious  and  secular  instruction 
of  the  French  Canadians,  and  now  form  part  of  the 
noble  university  which  bears  his  name. 


CANADA    AS  A    ROYAL   PROVINCE. 


159 


With  a  man  like  Laval  at  the  head  of  the  Church 
in  Canada  at  this  early  period,  it  necessarily  exer- 
cised a  powerful  influence  at  the  council  board,  and 


PORlKAri    OF    LAVAL,    FIRST   CANADL-VN    BISHOP. 

in  the  affairs  of  the  country  generally.  If  he  was 
sometimes  too  arbitrary,  too  arrogant  in  the  asser- 
tion of  his  ecclesiastical  dignity,   yet  he  was  also 


l6o  THE    STOKY   OF  CAXADA. 

animated  by  very  conscientious  motives  with  respect 
to  temporal  (questions.  In  the  (juarrel  he  Lad  with 
the  governor,  Baron  Dubois  d'Avaug^ur,  an  old 
soldier,  as  to  the  Se  le  of  brandy  to  the  Indians,  he 
showed  that  his  zeai  in  the  discharge  of  what  he 
believed  to  be  a  Christian  and  patriotic  duty  pre- 
dominated above  all  such  mercenary  and  commercial 
considerations  as  animated  the  governor  and  officials, 
who  believed  that  the  trading  interests  of  the  coun- 
try were  injured  by  prohibition.  Laval  saw  that  the 
very  life-blood  of  the  Indians  was  being  poisoned  by 
this  traffic,  and  succeeded  in  obtaining  the  removal 
of  D'Avaugour,  But  all  the  efforts  of  himself  and 
his  successor,  Saint-Vallier,  could  not  practically 
restrain  the  sale  of  spirituous  liquors,  as  long  as  the 
fur-trade  so  largely  depended  on  their  consumption. 

At  this  time,  and  for  a  long  time  afterwards,  Prot- 
estantism was  unknown  in  Canada,  for  the  King  and 
Jesuits  had  decided  to  keep  the  colony  entirely  free 
from  heresy.  The  French  Protestants,  after  the 
revocation  of  the  edict  of  Nantes,  gave  to  England 
and  the  Netherlands  the  benefit  of  their  great  indus- 
try and  manufacturing  knowledge.  Some  of  them 
even  found  their  way  to  America,  and  stimulated 
the  gathering  strength  of  the  southern  colonies  of 
Virginia  and  the  Carolinas. 

The  new  regime  under  Colbert  was  essentially 
parental.  All  emigration  was  under  the  direction  of 
the  French  authorities.  Wi\  es  were  sent  by  ship- 
loads for  the  settlers,  newly-wedded  couples  received 
liberal  presents  suitable  to  their  condition  in  a  new 
country;    early  marriages  and   large  families  were 


CANADA    AS  A    A'OVAL    PKOVIXCE.  l6l 

encouraged  by  bounties.  Every  possible  care  was 
taken  by  the  officials  and  religious  communities  who 
had  charge  of  such  matters,  that  the  women  were  of 
good  morals,  and  suitable  for  the  struggles  of  a 
colonial  existence. 

While  State  and  Church  were  providing  a  popu- 
lation for  the  country,  Colbert  and  Talon  were 
devoting  themselves  to  the  encouragement  of  manu- 
factures and  commerce.  When  the  Company  of  the 
Hundred  Associates,  who  appear  to  have  been 
robbed  by  their  agents  in  the  colony,  fell  to  pieces, 
they  were  replaced  by  a  large  organisation,  known 
as  the  Company  of  the  West,  to  which  was  given 
very  important  privileges  throughout  all  the  French 
colonies  and  dependencies.  The  company,  how- 
ever, never  prospered,  and  came  to  an  end  in  1674, 
after  ten  years'  existence,  during  which  it  inflicted 
much  injury  on  the  countries  where  it  was  given  so 
many  privileges.  The  government  hereafter  con- 
trolled all  commerce  and  finance.  Various  manufac- 
tures, like  shipbuilding,  leather,  hemp,  and  beer, 
were  encouraged,  but  at  no  time  did  Canada  show 
any  manufacturing  or  commercial  enterprise.  Under 
the  system  of  monopolies  and  bounties  fostered  by 
Colbert  and  his  successors,  a  spirit  of  self-reliance 
was  never  stimulated.  The  whole  system  of  govern- 
ment tended  to  peculation  and  jobbery — to  the 
enrichment  of  worthless  officials.  The  people  were 
always  extremely  poor.  Money  was  rarely  seen  in 
the  shape  of  specie.  The  few  coins  that  came  to 
the  colony  soon  found  their  way  back  to  France. 
From  1685  down  to  1759  the  government  issued  a 


1 62 


THE    STORY   OF  CAXADA. 


paper  currency,  known  as  "  card  money,"  because 
common  playing  cards  were  used.  This  currency 
bore  the  crown  and  fleur-de-lis  and  signatures  of 
officials,  and  gradually  became  depreciated  and 
worthless. 


"mvi 


c^  (/UAT^  p^^u^UAJt  <SU  o(j^<r'^7er^cu/u}>^y( 


''/ru/^;^ 


CARD  ISSUE    OF    I729,    FOR    12   LIVRES. 

While  the  townsfolk  of  Massachusetts  were  dis- 
cussing affairs  in  town-meetings,  the  French  inhabi- 
tants of  Canada  were  never  allowed  to  take  part  in 
public  assemblies  but  were  taught  to  depend  in  the 
most  trivial  matters  on  a  paternal  government. 
Canada  was  governed  as  far  as  possible  like  a  prov- 
ince of  France.  In  the  early  days  of  the  colony, 
when  it  was  under  the  rule  of  the  Company  of  the 
Hundred  Associates,  the  governors  practically  exer- 
cised arbitrary  power,  with  the  assistance  of  a  nomi- 
nal council  chosen  by  themselves.    When,  however, 


CAXADA    AS  A    ROYAL   PKOVIXCE. 


163 


the  King  took  the  government  of  the  colony  into  his 
own  hands,  he  appointed  a  governor,  an  intendant, 
and  a  supreme  or — as  it  was  subsequently  called — a 
sovereign  council,  of  which  the  bishop  was  a  mem- 
ber, to  administer  under  his  own  direction  the  affairs 
of  the  country.  The  governor,  who  was  generally 
a  soldier,  was  nominally  at  the  head  of  affairs,  and 
had  the  direction  of  the  defences  of  the  colony, 
but  to  all  intents  and  purposes  the  intendant,  who 
was  a  man  of  legal  attainments,  had  the  greater 
influence.     He  was  the  finance  minister,  and  made 


FIFTEEN    SOL  PIECE. 


special  reports  to  the  King  on  all  Canadian  matters. 
He  had  the  power  of  issuing  ordinances  which 
had  the  effect  of  law,  and  showed  the  arbitrary 
nature  of  the  government  to  which  the  people  were 
subject.  Every  effort  to  assemble  the  people  for 
public  purposes  was  systematically  crushed  by  the 
orders  of  the  government.  A  public  meeting  of  the 
parishioners  to  consider  the  cost  of  a  new  church 
could  not  be  held  without  the  special  permission  of 
the  intendant.  Count  Frontenac,  immediately  after 
his  arrival,  in  1672,  attempted  to  assemble  the 
different  orders  of  the  colony,  the  clergy,  the  noble$S€ 


164  THE    STORY   OF  CAXAPA, 

or  seigficurs,  the  judiciary,  and  the  third  estate,  in 
imitation  of  the  old  institutions  of  France.  The 
French  king  promptly  rebuked  the  haughty  gover- 
nor for  this  attempt  to  estabhsh  a  semblance  of 
popular  government. 

From  that  moment  we  hear  no  more  of  the  assem- 
bling of  ".  Canadian  Estates,"  and  an  effort  to  elect 
a  mayor  and  aldermen  for  Quebec  also  failed  through 
the  opposition  of  the  authorities.  An  attempt  was 
then  made  to  elect  a  syndic — a  representative  of 
popular  rights  in  towns — but  M.  de  Mesy,  then 
governor,  could  not  obtain  the  consent  of  the 
bishop,  who  knew  that  his  views  were  those  of  the 
King.  The  result  of  the  difficulties  that  followed 
was  the  dismissal  of  the  governor,  who  died  soon 
afterwards,  but  not  until  he  had  confessed  his  error, 
and  made  his  peace  with  the  haughty  bishop  whom 
he  had  dared  to  oppose. 

The  administration  of  local  affairs  throughout  the 
province  was  exclusively  under  the  control  of  the 
King's  officers  at  Quebec.  The  ordinances  of  the 
intendant  and  of  the  council  were  the  law.  The 
country  was  eventually  subdivided  into  the  follow- 
ing divisions  for  purposes  of  government,  settle- 
ment, and  justice:  I  Districts.  2.  Seigniories.  3. 
Parishes.  The  districts  were  simply  established  for 
judicial  and  legal  purposes,  and  each  of  them  bore 
the  name  of  the  principal  town  within  its  limits — 
viz.,  Quebec,  also  called  the  Prevot^  de  Quebec, 
Montreal,  and  Three  Rivers.  In  each  of  these  dis- 
tricts there  was  a  judge,  appointed  by  the  king,  to 
adjudicate  on  all  civil  and  criminal  matters.  An 
appeal  was  allowed  in  the  most  trivial  cases  to  the 


CANADA   AS  A    ROYAL  PROVINCE.  165 

supreme  or  superior  council,  which  also  exercised 
original  jurisdiction.  The  customary  law  of  Paris, 
which  is  based  on  the  civil  law  of  Rome,  was  the 
fundamental  law  of  Canada,  and  still  governs  the 
civil  rights  of  the  people. 

The  greater  part  of  Canada  was  divided  into  large 
estates  or  seigniories,  with  the  view  of  creating  a 
colonial  noblesse,  and  of  stimulating  settlement  in  a 
wilderness.  It  was  not  necessary  to  be  of  noble 
birth  to  be  a  Canadian  seigneur.  Any  trader  with  a 
few  louis  d'or  and  influence  could  obtain  a  patent 
for  a  Canadian  lordship.  The  seignior  on  his  acces- 
sion to  his  estate  was  required  to  pay  homage  to 
the  King,  or  to  his  feudal  superior  in  case  the  lands 
were  granted  by  another  than  the  King.  The  seign- 
ior received  his  land  gratuitously  from  the  crown, 
and  granted  them  to  his  vassals,  who  were  generally 
know^n  as  habitants,  or  cultivators  of  the  soil,  on 
condition  of  their  making  small  annual  payments  in 
money  or  produce  known  as  cens  et  rente.  The 
habitant  was  obliged  to  grind  his  corn  at  the  seign- 
ior's mill  (vionlin  banal),  bake  his  bread  in  the  seign- 
ior's oven,  give  his  lord  a  tithe  of  the  fish  caught  in 
his  waters,  and  comply  with  other  conditions  at  no 
time  onerous  or  strictly  enforced  in  the  days  of  the 
French  regime.  This  system  had  some  advantages 
in  a  new  country  like  Canada,  where  the  govern- 
ment managed  everything,  and  colonisation  was  not 
left  to  chance.  The  seignior  was  obliged  to  culti- 
vate his  estate  at  a  risk  of  forfeiture,  consequently  it 
was  absolutely  necessary  that  he  should  exert  him- 
self to  bring  settlers  upon  his  lands.  The  obligation 
of  the  habitant  to  grind  his  corn  in  the  seignior's 


l66  THE   STORY  OFCAXADA. 

mill  was  clearly  an  advantage  for  the  settlers.  In 
the  early  days  of  the  colony,  however,  the  seigniors 
were  generally  too  poor  to  fulfil  this  condition,  and 
the  /ill  bit  ants  had  to  grind  corn  between  stones,  or 
in  rude  hand  mills.  The  seiijniors  had  the  r'\\A\t  of 
dispensing  justice  in  certain  cases,  though  it  was  one 
he  very  rarely  exercised.  As  respects  civil  affairs, 
however,  both  lord  and  vassal  were  to  all  intents 
and  j)ur[)oses  on  the  same  footing,  for  they  were 
equally  ignored  in  matters  of  government. 

In  the  days  of  the  French  regime,  the  only  towns 
for  many  years  were  Quebec,  Montreal,  and  Three 
Rivers.  In  remote  and  exposed  places — like  those 
on  the  Richelieu,  where  officers  and  soldiers  of  the 
Carignan-Salieres  Regiment  had  been  induced  to 
settle — palisaded  villages  had  been  built.  The 
principal  settlements  were,  in  course  of  time,  estab- 
lished on  the  banks  of  the  St.  Lawrence,  as  affording 
in  those  days  the  easiest  means  of  intercommunica- 
tion. As  the  lots  of  a  seigniorial  grant  were  limited 
in  area — four  arpents  in  front  by  forty  in  depth — 
the  farms  in  the  course  of  time  assumed  the  appear- 
ance of  a  continuous  settlement  on  the  river.  These 
various  settlements  became  known  in  local  phrase- 
ology as  Cotes,  apparently  from  their  natural  situa- 
tion on  the  banks  of  the  river.  This  is  the  origin  of 
Cote  des  Neiges,  Cote  St.  Lou's,  Cote  St.  Paul,  and 
of  many  picturesque  villages  in  the  neighbourhood 
of  Montreal  and  Quebec.  As  the  country  became 
settled,  parishes  were  established  for  ecclesiastical 
purposes  and  the  administration  of  local  affairs. 
Here  the  influential  men  were  the  cur^,  the  seignior, 
and  the  captain  of  the  militia.     The  seignior,  from 


CANADA   AS  A   HOYAL   PROVINCE.  1 67 

his  social  position,  exercised  a  considerable  weij^ht 
in  the  community,  but  not  to  the  degree  that  the 
representative  of  the  Church  enjoyed.  The  church 
in  the  parishes  was  kept  up  by  tithes,  regulated  by 
ordinances,  and  first  imposed  by  Bishop  Laval  for 
the  support  of  the  Quebec  Seminary  and  the  clergy. 
Next  to  the  cur^  in  importance  was  the  captain  of 
the  militia.  The  whole  province  was  formed  into  a 
militia  district,  so  that,  in  times  of  war,  the  inhabi- 
tants might  be  obliged  to  perform  military  service 
under  the  French  governor.  In  times  of  peace  these 
militia  officers  in  the  parishes  executed  the  orders  of 
the  governor  and  intendant  in  all  matters  affecting 
the  King.  In  case  it  was  considered  necessary  to 
build  a  church  or  presbytery,  the  intendant  author- 
ised the  habitants  to  assemble  for  the  purpose  of 
choosing  from  among  themselves  four  persons  to 
make,  with  the  cure,  the  seignior,  and  the  captain 
of  the  militia,  an  estimate  of  the  expense  of  the 
structure.  It  was  the  special  care  of  the  captain  of 
the  militia  to  look  after  the  work,  and  see  that  each 
parishioner  did  his  full  share.  It  was  only  in 
church  matters,  in  fact,  that  the  people  of  a  parish 
had  a  voice,  and  even  in  these,  as  we  see,  they  did 
not  take  the  initiative.  The  Quebec  authorities 
must  in  all  such  cases  first  issue  an  ordinance. 

Under  these  circumstances  it  is  quite  intelligible 
that  the  people  of  Canada  were  obliged  to  seek  in 
the  clearing  of  the  forest,  in  the  cultivation  of  the 
field,  in  the  chase,  and  in  adventure,  the  means  of 
liveHhood,  and  hardly  ever  busied  themselves  about 
public  matters  in  which  they  were  not  allowed  to 
take  even  a  humble  part. 


XIL 

THE    PERIOD    OF    EXPLORATION    AND    DISCOVERY: 

PRIESTS,   FUR-TRADERS,   AND   COUREURS 

I)E   BOIS    IN  THE    WEST. 

(1 634- 1 687.) 

We  have  now  come  to  that  interesting  period  in 
the  history  of  Canada,  when  the  enterprise  and  cour- 
age of  French  adventurers  gave  France  a  claim  to 
an  immense  domain,  stretching  from  the  Gulf  of 
St.  Lawrence  indefinitely  beyond  the  Great  Lakes, 
and  from  the  basin  of  those  island  seas  as  far  as  the 
Gulf  of  Mexico.  The  eminent  intendant,  Talon, 
appears  to  have  immediately  understood  the  im- 
portance of  the  discovery  which  had  been  made  by 
the  interpreter  and  trader,  Jean  Nicolet,  of  Three 
Rivers,  who,  before  the  death  of  Champlain,  prob- 
ably in  1634,  ventured  into  the  region  of  the  lakes, 
and  heard  of  "  a  great  water  " — no  doubt  the  Mis- 
sissippi— while  among  the  Mascoutins,  a  branch  of 
the  Algonquin  stock,  whose  villages  were  generally 
found  in  the  valley  of  the  Fox  River.  He  is  con- 
sidered to  have  been  the  first  European  who  reached 
Sault  Ste.  Marie — rthe  strait  between  Superior  and 

168  ,  :. 


EXPLOKATION  AND   DISCOVERY.  1 69 

Huron — though  there  is  no  evidence  that  he  ven- 
tured beyond  the  rapids,  and  saw  the  great  expanse 
of  lake  which  had  been,  in  all  probability,  visited 
some  years  before  by  Ktienne  Brule,  after  his  escape 
from  the  Iroquois.  Nicolet  also  was  the  first 
Frenchman  who  passed  through  the  straits  of  Macki- 
nac or  Michillimackinac,  though  he  did  not  realise 
the  importance  of  its  situation  in  relation  to  the 
lakes  of  the  western  country.  It  is  told  of  him  that 
he  made  his  appearance  among  the  Winnebagos  in 
a  robe  of  brilliant  China  damask,  decorated  with 
flowers  and  birds  of  varied  colours,  and  holding  a 
pistol  in  each  hand.  This  theatrical  display  in  the 
western  forest  is  adduced  as  evidence  of  his  belief 
in  the  story  that  he  had  heard  among  the  Nipis- 
sings,  at  the  head-waters  of  the  Ottawa,  that  there 
were  tribes  in  the  west,  without  hair  and  beards, 
like  the  Chinese.  No  doubt,  he  thought  he  was 
coming  to  a  country  where,  at  last,  he  would  find 
that  short  route  to  the  Chinese  seas  which  had 
been  the  dream  of  many  Frenchmen  since  the  days 
of  Cartier.  We  have  no  answer  to  give  to  the  ques- 
tion that  naturally  suggests  itself,  whether  Cham- 
plain  ever  saw  Nicolet  on  his  return,  and  heard  from 
him  the  interesting  story  of  his  adventures.  It  was 
not  until  1641,  or  five  years  after  Champlain's  death, 
that  Father  Vimont  gave  to  the  world  an  account  of 
Nicolet's  journey,  which,  no  doubt,  stimulated  the 
interest  that  was  felt  in  the  mysterious  region  of  the 
west.  From  year  to  year  the  Jesuit  and  the  trader 
added  something  to  the  geographical  knowledge  of 
the  western  lakes,  where  the  secret  was  soon  to  be 


170  THE   STORY  OF  CANADA. 

unlocked  by  means  of  the  rivers  which  fed  those 
remarkable  reservoirs  of  the  continent.  In  1641 
Fathers  Raymbault  and  Jogues  preached  their  Faith 
to  a  large  concourse  of  Indians  at  the  Sault  between 
Huron  and  Superior,  where,  for  the  first  time,  they 
heard  of  the  Sioux  or  Dacotah,  those  vagrants  of 
the  northwest,  and  where  the  former  died  without 
realising  the  hope  he  had  cherished,  of  reaching 
China  across  the  western  wilderness.  Then  came 
those  years  of  terror,  when  trade  and  enterprise  were 
paralysed  by  those  raids  of  the  Iroquois,  which  cul- 
minated in  the  dispersion  of  the  Hurons.  For  years 
the  Ottawa  valley  was  almost  deserted,  and  very  few 
traders  or  coureurs  de  hois  ventured  into  the  country 
around  the  western  lakes.  An  enterprising  trader  of 
Three  Rivers,  Medard  Chouart,  Sieur  de  GrosseiU 
liers,  is  believed  to  have  reached  the  shores  of  Lake 
Superior  in  1658,  and  also  to  have  visited  La  Pointe, 
now  Ashland,  at  its  western  extremity,  in  the  sum- 
mer of  1659,  in  company  with  Pierre  d' Esprit, 
Sieur  Radisson,  whose  sister  he  had  married.  Some 
critical  historians  do  not  altogether  discredit  the 
assumption  that  these  two  venturesome  traders 
ascended  the  Fox  and  Wisconsin  rivers,  and  even 
reached  the  Mississippi,  twelve  years  before  Jolliet 
and  Marquette. 

With  the  peace  that  followed  the  destruction  of 
the  Mohawk  villages  by  Tracy  and  Courcelles,  and 
the  influx  of  a  considerable  population  into  Canada, 
the  conditions  became  more  favourable  for  explora- 
tion and  the  fur  trade.  The  tame  and  steady  life 
of  the  farm  had  little  charm  for  many  restless  spirits, 


EXP  LOR  A  TIOM  A  ND   DISCO  VKR  K  1 7 1 

who  had  fought  for  France  in  the  Carignan  Regi- 
ment. Not  a  few  of  them  followed  the  roving  Cana- 
dian youth  into  the  forest,  where  they  had  learned 
to  love  the  free  life  of  the  Indians.  The  priest,  the 
gcntilJiomuie,  and  the  courcur  dc  boisy  each  in  his 
way,  became  explorers  of  the  western  wilderness. 

From  the  moment  the  French  landed  on  the 
shores  of  Canada,  they  seemed  to  enter  into  the 
spirit  of  forest  life.  Men  of  noble  birth  and  courtly 
associations  adapted  themselves  immediately  to  the 
customs  of  the  Indians,  and  found  that  charm  in  the 
forest  and  river  which  seemed  wanting  in  the  tamer 
life  of  the  towns  and  settlements.  The  English  col- 
onisers of  New  England  were  never  able  to  win  the 
affections  of  the  Indian  tribes,  and  adapt  themselv^es 
so  readily  to  the  habits  of  forest  life  as  the  French 
Canadian  adventurer. 

A  very  remarkable  instance  of  the  infatuation 
which  led  away  so  many  young  men  into  the  forest, 
is  to  be  found  in  the  life  of  Baron  de  Saint-Castin,  a 
native  of  the  romantic  Bernese  country,  who  came 
to  Canada  with  the  Carignan  Regiment  during  1665, 
and  established  himself  for  a  time  on  the  Richelieu. 
But  he  soon  became  tired  of  his  inactive  life,  and 
leaving  his  Canadian  home,  settled  on  a  peninsula  of 
Penobscot  Bay  (then  Pentagoet),  which  still  bears 
his  name.  Here  he  fraternised  with  the  Abenaquis, 
and  led  the  life  of  a  forest  chief,  whose  name  was 
long  the  terror  of  the  New  England  settlers.  He 
married  the  daughter  of  Madocawando,  the  impla- 
cable enemy  of  the  English,  and  so  influential  did 
he  become  that,  at  his  summons,  all  the  tribes  on 


i;2  THE   STORY  OF  CANADA. 

the  frontier  between  Acadia  and  New  England 
would  proceed  on  the  warpath.  He  amassed  a  for- 
tune of  three  hundred  thousand  crowns  in  **  good 
dry  gold,"  but  \ve  are  told  he  only  used  the  greater 
part  of  it  to  buy  presents  for  his  Indian  followers, 
who  paid  him  back  in  beaver  skins.  His  life  at  Pen- 
tagoet,  for  years,  was  very  activ^e  and  adventurous, 
as  the  annals  of  New  England  show.  In  1781  he 
returned  to  France,  where  he  had  an  estate,  and 
thenceforth  disappeared  from  history.  His  son,  by 
his  Abenaqui  Baroness,  then  took  command  of  his 
fort  and  savage  retainers,  and  after  assisting  in  the 
defence  of  Port  Royal,  and  making  more  than  one 
onslaught  on  the  English  settlers  of  Massachusetts, 
he  returned  to  Europe  on  the  death  of  his  father. 
The  poet  Longfellow  has  made  use  of  this  romantic 
episode  in  the  early  life  of  the  Acadian  settlements: 

*'  The  warm  winds  blow  on  the  hills  of  Spain, 
The  birds  are  building  and  the  lea  .^es  are  green, 
The  Baron  Castine,  of  St.  Casfne, 
Hath  come  at  last  to  his  own  again." 

Year  after  year  saw  the  settlements  almost  de- 
nuded of  their  young  men,  who  had  been  lured  away 
by  the  fascinations  of  the  fur  trade  in  the  forest 
fastnesses  of  the  west.  The  government  found  all 
their  plans  for  increasing  the  population  and  colonis- 
ing the  country  thwarted  by  the  nomadic  habits  of 
a  restless  youth.  The  young  man,  whether  son  of 
the  gentilJiommc^  or  of  the  humble  habitant,  was  car- 
ried away  by  his  love  for  forest  life,  and  no  enact- 
ments,  however  severe — not  even   the   penalty  of 


^'•^^'^^m^^^im^-^^-^^m^-^^!^^^^ 


CANAIIAN  TRAPPER,  FROM  LA  POTHKRIE, 


173 


174  THE    STORY  OF  CANADA.  » 

death — had  the  effect  of  restraining^  his  restlessness. 
That  the  majority  of  the  courciirs  dc  bois  were  a 
reckless,  dare-devil  set  of  fellows,  it  is  needless  to 
say.  On  their  return  from  their  forest  haunts,  after 
months  of  savage  liberty,  they  too  often  threw  off 
all  restraint,  and  indulged  in  the  most  furious  orgies. 
Montreal  was  their  favourite  place  of  resort,  for  here 
were  held  the  great  fairs  for  the  sale  of  furs.  The 
Ottawas,  Hurons,  and  other  tribes  came  from  dis- 
tant parts  of  the  North  and  West,  and  camped  on 
the  shores  in  the  immediate  vicinity  of  the  town. 
When  the  fair  was  in  full  operation,  a  scene  was 
represented  well  worthy  of  the  bold  brush  of  a  Dor^. 
The  royal  mountain,  then  as  now,  formed  a  back- 
ground of  rare  sylvan  beauty.  The  old  town  was 
huddled  together  on  the  low  lands  near  the  river, 
and  was  for  years  a  mere  collection  of  low  wooden 
houses  and  churches,  all  surrounded  by  palisades. 
On  the  fair  ground  were  to  be  seen  Indians  tricked 
out  in  their  savage  finery;  coureurs  de  bois  in  equally 
gorgeous  apparel ;  black-robed  priests  and  busy  mer- 
chants from  all  the  towns,  intent  on  wheedling  the 
Indians  and  bush  rangers  out  of  their  choicest  furs. 
The  principal  rendezvous  in  the  west  was  Macki- 
nac or  Michillimackinac.  Few  places  possessed  a 
more  interesting  history  than  this  old  headquarters 
of  the  Indian  tribes  and  French  voyageurs.  Macki- 
nac may  be  considered,  in  some  respects,  the  key 
of  the  upper  lakes.  Here  the  tribes  from  the  north 
to  the  south  could  assemble  at  a  very  short  notice 
and  decide  on  questions  of  trade  or  war.  It  was 
long  the  metropolis  of  a  large  portion  of  the  Huron 


EXPLORATION  AND  DISCOVERY,  1 75 

and  Ottawa  nations,  and  m^ny  a  council,  fraught 
with  the  peace  of  Canada,  was  held  there  in  the 
olden  times.  It  was  on  the  north  side  of  the  straits 
that  Father  Marquette — whose  name  must  ever  live 
in  the  west — some  time  in  167 1  founded  the  mission 
of  St.  Ignace,  where  gradually  grew  up  the  most 
important  settlement  which  the  French  had  to  the 
northwest  of  Fort  Frontenac  or  CaL-^raqui.  The 
F'rench  built  a  chapel  end  fort,  and  the  Hurons  and 
Ottawas  lived  in  palisaded  villages  in  the  neighbour- 
hood. The  coureiirs  de  bois  were  always  to  be  seen 
at  a  point  where  they  could  be  sure  to  find  Indians 
in  large  numbers.  Contemporary  writers  state  that 
the  presence  of  so  many  unruly  elements  at  this  dis- 
tant outpost  frequently  threw  the  whole  settlement 
into  a  sad  state  of  confusion  and  excitement,  which 
the  priests  were  at  times  entirely  unable  to  restrain. 
Indians,  soldiers,  and  traders  became  at  last  so 
demoralised,  that  one  of  the  priests  wrote,  in  his 
despair,  that  there  seemed  no  course  open  except 
"  deserting  the  missions  and  giving  them  up  to  the 
brandy-sellers  as  a  domain  of  drunkenness  and 
debauchery." 

But  it  would  be  a  mistake  to  judge  all  the  coureiirs 
de  bois  by  the  behaviour  of  a  majority,  who  were 
made  up  necessarily  from  the  ruder  elements  of  the 
Canadian  population.  Even  the  most  reckless  of 
their  class  had  their  work  to  do  in  the  opening  up 
of  this  continent.  Despising  danger  in  every  form, 
they  wandered  over  rivers  and  lakes  and  through 
virgin  forests,  and  "  blazed  "  a  track,  as  it  were,  for 
the  future  pioneer.     They  were  the  first  to  lift  the 


176  THE   STORY  OF  OAXADA. 

veil  of  mystery  tl  hung,  until  they  came,  on  many 
a  solitary  river  and  fore  t.  The  posts  they  raised 
by  the  side  of  the  western  lakes  iind  rivers,  were  so 
many  videttes  of  that  army  of  colonisers  who  have 
built  up  great  commonwealths  in  that  vast  country, 
where  the  bushranger  was  the  only  European  two 
centuries  ago.  The  most  famous  amongst  their 
leaders  was  the  quick-witted  Nicholas  Perrot — the 
explorer  of  the  interior  of  the  continent.  Another 
was  Daniel  Greysolon  Duluth,  who  became  a  Cana- 
dian Robin  Hood,  and  had  his  band  of  bushrangers 
like  any  forest  chieftain.  For  years  he  wandered 
through  the  forests  of  the  West,  and  founded  vari- 
ous posts  at  important  points,  where  the  fur  trade 
could  be  prosecuted  to  advantage.  Posterity  has 
been  more  generous  to  him  than  it  has  been  to 
others  equally  famous  as  pioneers,  for  it  has  given 
his  name  to  a  city  at  the  head  of  Lake  Superior. 
Like  many  a  forest  which  they  first  saw  in  its  prime- 
val vastness,  these  pioneers  have  disappeared  into 
the  shadowy  domain  of  an  almost  forgotten  past, 
and  their  memory  is  only  recalled  as  we  pass  by 
some  storm-beat  cape,  or  land-locked  bay,  or  silent 
river,  to  which  may  still  cling  the  names  they  gave 
as  they  swept  along  in  the  days  of  the  old  regime. 


XIIT. 

THE     PERIOD    OF    EXPLORATION    AND    DISCOVERY: 
FRANCE    IN   THE   VALLEY   OF  THE   MISSISSIPPI. 


(1672- 1 687.) 


SaULT  S  FE.  Marie  was  the  scene  of  a  memorable 
episode  in  the  history  of  New  France  during  the 
summer  of  1671.  Simon  Francois  Daumont,  Sieur 
St.  Lusson,  received  a  commission  from  the  gov- 
ernment of  Quebec  to  proceed  to  Lake  Superior  to 
search  for  copper  mines,  and  also  to  take  formal  pos- 
session of  the  basin  of  the  lakes  and  its  tributary 
rivers.  With  him  were  two  men,  who  became  more 
famous  than  himself — Nicholas  Perrot  and  Louis  Jol- 
liet,  the  noted  explorers  and  rangers  of  the  West.  On 
an  elevation  overlooking  the  rapids,  around  which 
modern  enterprise  has  built  two  ship-canals,  St.  Lus- 
son erected  a  cross  and  post  of  cedar,  with  the  arms  of 
France,  in  the  presence  of  priests  in  their  black  robes, 
Indians  bedecked  with  tawdry  finery,  and  bush- 
rangers in  motley  dress.  In  the  name  of  the  **  most 
high,  mighty,  and  redoubted  monarch,  Louis  XIV. 
of  that  name,  most  Christian  King  of  France  and  of 
w  177 


lyS  THE   STORY  OF  CAXADA. 

Navarre,"  he  declared  h' ranee  the  owner  of  Sault 
Ste.  Marie,  Lakes  Huron  and  Superior,  and  Isle  of 
Mackinac,  and  **  all  of  adjacent  countries,  rivers, 
and  lakes,  and  contii^uous  streams."  As  far  as 
boastful  words  and  priestly  blessings  could  go, 
PVance  was  mistress  of  an  empire  in  the  great 
West. 

Three  names  stand  out  in  bold  letters  on  the  rec- 
ords of  western  discovery:  Jolliet,  the  enterprising 
trader,  Marquette,  the  faithful  missionary,  and  La 
Salle,  the  bold  explorer.  The  story  of  their  adven- 
tures takes  up  many  pages  in  the  histories  of  this 
fascinating  epoch.  Talon  may  be  fairly  considered 
to  have  laid  the  foundations  of  western  exploration, 
and  it  was  left  for  Louis  de  Baude,  Comte  de  Fron- 
tenac,  who  succeeded  Courcelles  as  governor  in  1672, 
to  carry  out  the  plans  of  the  able  intendant  when  he 
left  the  St.  Lawrence. 

Jolliet,  a  Canadian  by  birth,  was  wisely  chosen  by 
Talon — and  Frontenac  approved  of  the  choice — to 
explore  the  West  and  find  the  "  great  water,"  of 
which  vague  stories  were  constantly  brought  back 
by  traders  and  bushrangers.  Jolliet  was  one  of  the 
best  specimens  of  a  trader  and  pioneer  that  Cana- 
dian history  gives  us.  His  roving  inclinations  were 
qualified  by  a  cool,  collected  brain,  which  carried 
him  safely  through  many  a  perilous  adventure.  He 
had  for  his  companion  Father  Marquette^  who  was 
then  stationed  at  the  mission  of  St.  Ignace,  and  had 
gathered  from  the  Indians  at  his  w^estern  missions — 
especially  at  La  Pointe  on  Lake  Superior — valuable 
information    respecting   the    "great   water"    then 


FRANCE  IN    TUB  MISSISSIPPI   VALLEY,       1 79 

called  tht*  **  Missipi."  Both  had  many  sympathies 
in  common.  JolUet  had  been  educated  by  the  Jesu- 
its in  Canada,  but  unhke  La  Salle,  he  was  in  full 
accord  with  their  objects.  Marquette  possessed 
those  qualities  of  self-sacrifice  and  religious  devotion 
which  entitle  him  to  rank  with  Lalemant,  Jogues, 
and  Brebeuf.  While  Jolliet  was  inspired  by  purely 
ambitious  and  trading  instincts,  the  missionary  had 
no  other  hope  or  desire  than  to  bring  a  great  region 
and  its  savage  communities  under  the  benign  influ- 
ence of  the  divine  being  whose  heavenly  face  seemed 
ever  present,  encouraging  him  to  fresh  efforts  in  her 
service.  It  was  in  the  spring  of  1673  that  these  two 
men  started  with  five  companions  in  two  canoes 
on  their  journey  through  that  wilderness,  which 
stretched  beyond  Green  Bay — an  English  corrup- 
tion of  Grande  Baie.  Like  Nicolet,  they  ascended 
the  Fox  River  to  the  country  of  the  Mascoutins, 
Foxes,  and  Kickapoos,  where  they  obtained  guides 
to  lead  them  across  the  portage  to  the  Wisconsin. 
The  adventurers  had  now  reached  the  low  "divide  " 
between  the  valleys  of  the  Lakes  and  the  Mississippi. 
The  Fox  River  and  its  affluents  flowed  tranquilly  to 
the  great  reservoirs  of  the  St.  Lawrence,  while  the 
Wisconsin,  on  which  they  now  launched  their 
canoes,  carried  them  to  a  mighty  river,  which  ended 
they  knew  not  where.  A  month  after  leaving  St. 
Ignace  they  found  themselves  **  with  a  great  and 
inexpressible  joy  " — to  quote  Marquette's  words — 
on  the  rapid  current  of  a  river  which  they  recognised 
as  the  Missipi.  As  they  proceeded  they  saw  the 
low-lying  natural  meadows  and  prairies  where  herds 


l80  THE  STONY  OF  CANADA. 

of  buffalo  were  grazing,  marshes  with  a  luxuriant 
growth  of  wild  rice,  the  ruinetl  castles  which  nature 
had  in  the  course  of  many  centuries  formed  out  of 
the  rocks  of  the  western  shores,  and  the  hideous 
manitous  which  Indian  ingenuity  had  pictured  on 
the  time-worn  cliffs.  They  had  pleasant  interviews 
with  the  Indians  that  were  hunting  the  roebuck  and 
buffalo  in  this  land  of  rich  grasses.  Their  canoes 
struggled  through  the  muddy  current,  which  the 
Missouri  gav^e  as  its  tribute  to  the  Missipi,  passed 
the  low  marshy  shores  of  the  Ohio,  and  at  last  came 
near  the  mouth  of  the  Arkansas,  where  they  landed 
at  an  Indian  village  which  the  natives  called 
Akamsea.  Mere  they  gathered  sufficient  informa- 
tion to  enable  them  to  form  the  conclusion  that  the 
great  river  before  their  eyes  found  its  way,  not  to 
the  Atlantic  or  Pacific  oceans,  but  to  the  Gulf  of 
Mexico.  Then  they  decided  not  to  pursue  their 
expeditions  further  at  that  time,  but  to  return  home 
and  relate  the  story  of  their  discovery.  When  they 
came  to  the  mouth  of  the  Illinois  River,  they  took 
that  route  in  preference  to  the  one  by  which  they 
had  come,  followed  the  Des  Plaines  River, — where 
a  hill  still  bears  Jolliet's  name — crossed  the  Chicago 
portage,  and  at  last  found  themselves  at  the  south- 
ern extremity  of  Lake  Michigan.  It  was  then  the 
end  of  September,  and  Jolliet  did  not  reach  Canada 
until  the  following  summer.  When  nearly  at  his 
journey's  end,  Fate  dealt  him  a  cruel  blow,  his  canoe 
was  capsized  after  running  the  Lachine  Rapids  just 
above  Montreal,  and  he  lost  all  the  original  notes  of 
his  journey.      Frontenac,   however,    received    iroxx\ 


/•A'.-iXcn  liM  THE  AiJuaj^ajrr/  y alley,     i8i 


him  a  full  account  of  his  explorations,  and  sent  it  to 
France. 

Two  centuries  later  than  this  memorable  voyage 
of  Jolliet,  a  rVench  Canadian  poet-laureate  describerl 
it  in  verse  fully  worthy  of  the  subject,  as  the  follow- 
ing passage  and  equally  spirited  translation  *  go  to 
show : 


LA    DKfOUVERTE   DU 
MlSSISSiri'I. 

Jolliet     .     .     .     Jolliet     .     .     . 
quel  spectacle  feerique 

Dut  frapper  ton  rej^ard,  quaiul  ta 
ncf  liistori(|ue 

Hoiulit  sur  les  tlots  d'or  dii  grand 
tleuve  incoi.nu     .     .     . 

Quel  eclair  triomphant,  d  cet  in- 
stant de  fitvre, 
Dut  resplendir  sur  ton  front 
nu  ?     .     ,     . 


THE  DISCOVERY  OF  THE 
MISSISSIPPI. 

O,  Jolliet,    what   splendid  faery 

dream 
Met  thy    :  gard,   when   on  that 

mighty  stream, 
lUirsting  upon  its  lonely  unknown 

flow. 
T\\y  keel  historic  cleft  its  golden 

tide:  — 
Blossomed  ihy  li|>  with  what  stern 

smile  of  pride? 
What  conquering  light  shone  on 

thy  lofty  brow  ? 


Le    voyez-vous     la-has,     dehout 

comme  un  prophete, 
L'oeil     tout     illumine     d'audace 

satisfaite. 
La   main    tendue   au    loin    vers 

rOccident  bronze. 
Prendre  possession  de  ce  domaine 

immense, 
Au  nom  du  Dieu  vivant,  au  nom 

roi  de  France, 
Et  du  monde  civilise?   .    .  . 


Behold  him  there,  a  prophet, 
lifted  high. 

Heart-satisfied,  with  bold,  illu- 
mined eye, 

His  hand  outstretched  toward  the 
sunset  furled, 

Taking  possession  of  this  domain 
immense. 

In  the  name  of  the  living  God, 
in  the  name  of  the  King 
of  France, 

And  the  mighty  modern  world. 


Puis,  berce  par  la  houle,  et  berce  Rocked  by  the  tides,  wrapt  in  his 
par  ses  reves,  glorious  moods, 

L'oreilie  ouverte  aux  bruits  har-  Breathing  perfumes  of  lofty  odor- 
monieux  des  greves,  ous  woods, 

♦  Mr.  W.  Wilfrid  Campbell,  F.R.S.C.,  a  well-known  English- 
Canadian  poet,  has  translated  for  '*  The  Story  of  Canada  "  these 
verses  of  his  French  contemporary  Frechette. 


l82 


THE  STORY  OF  CANADA, 


Humant  I'acre  parfuin  desyrands 

])()is  odorants, 
Rasant  les  iluts  verts  et  les  dunes 

d'opale, 
De  mcandre  en   meandre,  au  fil 

I'onde  ])ale, 
Suivre    le    tours     des    ^ots 

errants.     .     .     . 


Ears  o{)ened  to  the  shores*  har- 
monious tunes, 

Following  in  tlieir  dreams  and 
voices  mellow, 

To  wander  and  wande;  in  the 
thread  of  the  pale  billow. 

Past  islands  hushed  and  opales- 
cent dunes. 


A  son  aspect,  du  sein  des  flottan- 

tes  ramures, 
Montait  comme   un   concert    de 

chants  et  de  murmures  ; 
Des  vols  d'oiseaux  niarins  s'cle- 

vaient  des  roseanx, 
Et,  pour  montrer  la  route  a  la 

pirogue  frcle, 
S'enfuyaient    en   avant,  trainant 

leur  ombre  gr^le 
Dans   le   pli    lumineux    des 

eaux. 


I.o,  as  he  comes,   from  out    the 

waving  boughs, 
A  rising   concert   of  murmurous 

song  u|)flows, 
Of  winging  sea-fowl  lifting  from 

the  reeds ; 
Pointing  the   route  to  his  swift 

dripping  blade. 
Then  skimming  before,   tracing 

their  slender  shade 
In    luminous    foldings     of     the 

watery   meads. 


Et,  i)endant  qu'il  allait  voguant 

a  la  derive, 
On    aurait    dit    qu'au    loin,    les 

arbres  de  la  rive, 
En  arceaux  j^arfumes  penchtfs  sur 

son  chemin, 
Saluaient  le    heros  dont    Tcner- 

gique  audace 
Venait  d'inscrire  encorle  nom  de 

not  re  race 
Aux      fastes       de      I'esprit 

humain. 


And  as  he  journeys,  drifting  with 
its  flow, 

The  forests  lifting  their  glad 
roofs   aglow. 

In  perfumed  arches  o'er  his  keel's 
swift  swell, 

Salute  the  hero,  whose  undaunted 
soul 

Had  graved  anew  "LaFrance" 
on  that  ])roud  scroll 

Of  human  genius,  bright,  im- 
perishable. 


Jolliet's  companion,  the  Jesuit  missionary,  never 
realised  his  dream  of  many  years  of  usefulness  in 
new  missions  among  the  tribes  of  the  immense 
region  claimed  by  France.  In  the  spring  of  1675  he 
died  by  the  side  of  a  little  stream  which  finds  its 
outlet  on  the  western  shore  of  Lake  Michigan^  soon 
after  his  return  from  a  painful  journey  he  had  taken, 
while  in  a  feeble  state  of  health,  to  the  Indian  com- 
munities   of    Kaskaskia   between   the   Illinois   and 


FRANCE   IN    THE   MISSISSIPPI    VALLEY.       1 83 

Wabash  rivers.  A  few  months  Liter  his  remains 
were  remov^ed  by  some  Ottavvas,  who  knew  and 
loved  him  well,  and  carried  to  St.  Ij^nace,  where 
they  were  buried  beneath  the  little  mission  chai)el. 
His  memory  has  been  perpetuated  in  the  nomencla- 
ture of  the  western  rej^ion,  and  his  statue  stands  in 
the  rotunda  of  that  marble  capitol  which  represents, 
not  the  power  and  greatness  of  that  TVance  which 
he  loved  only  less  than  his  Church,  but  the  national 
development  of  those  English  colonies  which,  in  his 
time,  were  only  a  narrow  fringe  on  the  Atlantic 
coast,  separated  from  the  i^reat  West  by  mountain 
ranges  which  none  of  the  most  venturesome  of  their 
people  had  yet  dared  to  cross. 

The  work  that  was  commenced  by  Jolliet  and 
Marquette,  of  solvin^r  the  mystery  that  had  so  long 
surrounded  the  Mississippi,  was  completed  by  Ren6 
Robert  Cavalier,  Sieur  de  la  Salle,  a  native  of 
Rouen,  who  came  to  Canada  when  quite  a  young 
man,  and  obtained  a  grant  of  land  from  the  Sulpi- 
cian  proprietors  of  Montreal  at  the  head  of  the 
rapids,  then  known  as  St.  Louis.  Like  so  many 
Canadians  of  those  days  he  was  soon  carried  away 
by  a  spirit  of  adventure.  He  had  heard  of  the  *  *  great 
water  "  in  the  west,  which  he  believed,  in  common 
with  others,  might  lead  to  the  Gulf  of  California. 
In  the  summer  of  1669  he  accompanied  two  Sulpician 
priests,  of  Montreal,  Dollier  de  Casson  and  Gallinee, 
on  an  expedition  they  made,  under  the  authority  of 
Governor  Courcelles,  to  the  extreme  western  end  of 
Ontario,  where  he  met  Jolliet,  apparently  for  the 
first  time,  and  probably    had    many    conversations 


1 84  ^'/^^    STOKY  OP  CANAhA. 

with  him  respecting  the  west  and  south,  and  their 
unknown  rivers.  He  decided  to  leave  the  party  and 
attempt  an  exploration  by  a  southerly  route,  while 
the  priests  went  on  to  the  u[)per  lakes  as  far  as  the 
Sault.  Of  La  Salle's  movements  for  the  next  two 
years  we  are  largely  in  the  dark — in  some  respects 
entirely  so.  It  has  been  claimed  by  some  that  he 
first  discovered  the  Ohio,  and  even  reached  the 
Mississipi)i,  but  so  careful  an  historian  as  Justin 
Winsor  agrees  with  Shea's  conclusion  that  La  Salle 

reached  the  Illinois  or  some  other  affluent  of  the 
Mississippi,  but  made  no  report  and  made  no  claim, 
having  failed  to  reach  the  great  river."  It  was  on 
his  return  from  these  mysterious  wanderings,  that 
his  seigniory  is  said  to  have  received  the  name  of 
La  Chine  as  a  derisive  comment  on  his  failure  to  find 
a  road  to  China.  In  the  course  of  years  the  name 
was  very  commonly  given,  not  only  to  the  lake  but 
to  the  rapids  of  St.  Louis. 

We  now  come  to  sure  ground  when  we  follow^  La 
Salle's  later  explorations,  on  which  his  fame  entirely 
rests.  Frontenac  entered  heartily  into  his  plans  of 
following  the  Mississippi  to  its  mouth,  and  setting 
at  rest  the  doubts  that  existed  as  to  its  course.  He 
received  from  the  King  a  grant  of  Fort  Frontenac 
and  its  surrounding  lands  as  a  seigniory.  This  fort 
had  been  built  by  the  governor  in  1673  at  Cataraqui, 
now  Kingston,  as  an  advanced  trading  and  defensive 
post  on  Lake  Ontario.  La  Salle  considered  it  a 
most  advantageous  position  for  carrying  on  his  am- 
bitious projects  of  exploration.  He  visited  France 
in  1677  and  received  from  the  King  letters-patent 


i85 


1 86  THE  STORY  OF  CANADA. 

authorising  him  to  build  forts  south  and  west  in 
that  region  "through  which  it  would  seem  a  passage 
to  Mexico  can  be  discovered."  On  his  return  to 
Canada  he  was  accompanied  by  a  Recollet  friar. 
Father  Louis  Hennepin,  and  by  Henry  de  Tonty, 
the  son  of  an  Italian  resident  of  Paris,  both  of  whom 
have  associated  their  names  with  western  explora- 
tion. Of  all  his  friends  and  followers,  Tonty,  who 
had  a  copper  hand  in  the  place  of  the  one  blown  off 
in  an  Italian  war,  was  the  most  faithful  and  honest, 
through  the  varying  fortunes  of  the  explorer's  career 
from  this  time  forward.  To  Father  Hennepin  I 
refer  in  another  place. 

Both  Hennepin  and  Tonty  accompanied  La  Salle 
on  his  expedition  of  1678  to  the  Niagara  district, 
where,  above  the  great  falls,  near  the  mouth  of 
Cayuga  Creek,  he  built  the  first  vessel  that  ever  ven- 
tured on  the  lakes,  and  which  he  named  the  "Grif- 
fin "  in  honour  of  Frontenac,  whose  coat-of-arms 
bore  such  a  heraldic  device.  The  loss  of  this  vessel, 
while  returning  with  a  cargo  of  furs  from  Green  Bay 
to  Niagara,  was  a  great  blow  to  La  Salle,  who,  from 
this  time  until  his  death,  suffered  many  misfortunes 
which  might  well  have  discouraged  one  of  less  in- 
domitable will  and  fixity  of  purpose.  On  the  banks 
of  the  Illinois  River,  a  little  below  the  present  city  of 
Peoria,  he  built  Fort  Crev^ecoeur,  probably  as  a  me- 
morial of  a  famous  fort  in  the  Netherlands,  not  long 
before  captured  by  the  French.  While  on  a  visit  to 
Canada,  this  post  was  destroyed  by  some  of  his  own 
men  in  the  absence  of  Tonty,  who  had  been  left  in 
charge.  These  men  were  subsequently  captured  not 
far  from  Cataraqui,  and  severely  punished. 


FRANCE  IN   THE  MISSISSIPPI   VALLEY.       1 87 

In  the  meantime,  three  Frenchmen,  Father  Hen- 
nepin, Michel  Accaiit,  and  one  Du  Gay,  in  obedi- 
ence to  La  Salle's  orders,  had  ventured  to  the  upper 
waters  of  the  Mississippi,  and  were  made  prisoners 
by  a  wandering  tribe  of  Sioux.  Not  far  from  the 
falls  of  St.  Anthony  Father  Hennepin  met  with  the 
famous  forest  ranger,  Duluth,  who  was  better  ac- 
quainted with  the  Sioux  country  than  any  other  liv- 
ing Frenchman,  and  was  forming  ambitious  designs 
to  explore  the  whole  western  region  beyond  Lake 
Superior.  Father  Hennepin,  who  had  been  adopted 
by  an  aged  Sioux  chief,  was  free  to  follow  Duluth 
back  to  the  French  post  at  the  Straits  of  Mackinac. 
This  adventure  of  Father  Hennepin  is  famous  in 
history,  not  on  account  of  any  discoveries  he  actu- 
ally made,  but  on  account  of  the  claim  he  attempted 
to  establish  some  years  after  his  journey,  of  having 
followed  the  Mississippi  to  the  Gulf.  In  the  first 
edition  of  his  book,  printed  in  1683 — Description  de 
la  Loiiisianc — no  such  claim  was  ever  suggested, 
and  it  was  only  in  1697  that  the  same  work  appeared 
in  an  enlarged  form, — La  Noiivclle  D^couverte — 
crediting  Hennepin  with  having  descended  the  great 
river  to  its  outlet.  It  is  not  necessary  here  to  punc- 
ture a  falsehood  which  was  long  ago  exposed  b)^  his- 
torical writers.  His  history  of  having  reached  the 
Gulf  of  Mexico  is  as  visionary  as  the  traveller's  tales 
of  Norumbega.  Indeed,  he  could  not  even  claim  a 
gift  of  fertile  invention  in  this  case,  as  the  very  ac- 
count of  his  alleged  discovery  was  obviously  plagi- 
arised from  Father  Membre's  narrative  of  La  Salle's 
voyage  of  1682,  which  appears  in  Le  Clercq's  Pre- 
mier  Etablissement  de  la  Foy, 


1 88  THE   STORY  OF  CA.\ADA. 

When  I.a  Salle  was  again  able  to  venture  into  the 
west  he  found  the  villages  of  the  Illinois  only  black- 
ened heaps  of  ruins — sure  evidence  of  the  Iroquois 
having  been  on  the  warpath.  During  the  winter  of 
1 68 1  he  remained  at  a  post  he  had  built  on  the 
banks  of  the  St.  Joseph  in  the  Miami  country,  and 
heard  no  news  of  his  faithful  Tonty.  It  was  not 
until  the  spring,  whilst  on  his  way  to  Canada  for 
men  and  supplies,  that  he  discovered  his  friend  at 
Mackinac,  after  having  passed  through  some  critical 
experiences  among  the  Iroquois,  who,  in  conjunction 
with  the  Miamis,  had  destroyed  the  villages  of  the 
Illinois,  and  killed  a  number  of  those  Indians  with 
their  customary  ferocity.  Tonty  had  finally  found 
rest  and  security  in  a  \  illage  of  the  Pottawattomies 
at  the  head  of  Green  Bay. 

On  the  6th  of  February,  1682,  La  Salle  passed 
down  the  swift  current  of  the  Mississippi  on  that 
memorable  voyage  which  led  him  to  the  Gulf  of 
Mexico.  He  was  accompanied  by  Tonty,  and  Father 
Membre,  one  of  the  Recollet  order,  whom  he  always 
preferred  to  the  Jesuits.  The  Indians  of  the  expe- 
dition were  Abcnakis  and  Mohegans,  who  had  left 
the  far-off  Atlantic  coast  and  Acadian  rivers,  and 
wandered  into  the  great  west  after  the  unsuccessful 
war  in  New  England,  which  was  waged  by  the  Sa- 
chem Metacomet,  better  known  as  King  Philip,  and 
only  ended  with  his  death  in  1676,  and  the  destruc- 
tion of  many  settlements  in  the  colony  of  Plymouth. 

They  met  with  a  kindly  reception  from  the  In- 
dians encamped  by  the  side  of  the  river,  and,  for  the 
first  time,  saw  the  villages  of  the  Taensas  and  Nat- 


FRANCE  IX    THE   MISSISSIPPI    VALLEY,       1 89 

chez,  who  were  worshippers  of  the  sun.  At  last  on 
the  6th  of  April,  La  Salle,  Tonty,  and  Dautray,  went 
separately  in  canoes  through  the  three  channels  of 
the  Mississippi,  and  emerged  on  the  bosom  of  the 
great  Gulf.  Not  far  from  the  mouth  of  the  river 
where  the  ground  was  relatively  high  and  dry,  a  col- 
umn was  raised  with  the  inscription  : 

**  Louis  le  Grand  J  roy  de  France  et  de  Navarre  y 
r^gnc ;  ie  netiviesmc  Avril,  1682.** 

And  La  Salle  took  possession  of  the  country  with 
just  such  ceremonies  as  had  distinguished  a  similar 
proceeding  at  Sault  Ste.  Marie  eleven  years  before. 
It  can  be  said  that  Frenchmen  had  at  least  fairly 
laid  a  basis  for  future  empire  from  the  Lakes  to  the 
Gulf.  It  was  for  France  to  show  her  appreciation 
of  the  enterprise  of  her  sons  and  make  good  her 
claim  to  such  a  vast  imperial  domain.  The  future 
was  to  show  that  she  was  unequal  to  the  task. 

The  few  remaining  years  of  La  Salle's  life  were 
crowded  with  misfortunes.  Duchesneau,  the  in- 
tendant,  who  had  succeeded  Talon,  was  an  enemy  of 
both  Frontenac  and  the  explorer.  The  distinguished 
governor  was  recalled  by  his  royal  master,  who  was 
tired  of  the  constant  complaints  of  his  enemies 
against  him,  and  misled  by  their  accusations.  La 
Barre,  the  incompetent  governor  who  followed 
Frontenac,  took  possession  of  Fort  St.  Louis,  which 
La  Salle  had  succeeded,  after  his  return  from  the 
Gulf  of  Mexico,  in  erecting  at  Starved  Rock  on  the 
banks  of  the  Illinois  not  far  from  the  present  city  of 
Ottawa,  where  a  large  number  of  Indians  had  re- 


190  THE   STORY  OF  CAXADA. 

turned  to  their  favourite  home.  In  France,  however, 
the  importance  of  his  discovery  was  fully  recognised, 
and  when  he  visited  his  native  country  in  1683-4  he 
met  with  a  very  cordial  reception  from  the  King,  and 
Seignelay,  who  had  succeeded  his  father,  Colbert, 
when  he  resigned.  The  King  ordered  that  La  Salle's 
forts  be  restored  to  him,  and  gave  him  a  commission 
to  found  colonies  in  Louisiana,  as  the  new  country 
through  which  the  Mississippi  flowed  had  been  called 
since  1682.  By  a  strange  irony  of  Fate,  the  expedi- 
tion of  1684  passed  the  mouth  of  the  Mississippi, 
and  La  Salle  made  the  first  French  settlement  on 
the  Gulf  somewhere  in  the  vicinity  of  Matagorda 
Bay,  in  the  present  State  of  Texas.  Misery  was  the 
lot  of  the  little  colony  from  the  very  first  moment 
it  landed  on  that  lonely  shore.  When  his  misfor- 
tunes were  most  grievous,  La  Salle  decided  to  make 
an  effort  to  reach  the  Illinois  country,  but  he  was 
assassinated  by  two  of  his  own  men — Duhaut  and 
Liotot — near  a  branch  of  the  Trinity  River.  His 
nephew  Moranget,  Nika,  a  faithful  Shawnee  who 
had  been  by  his  side  for  years,  and  Sayet,  his  own 
servant,  suffered  the  same  fate.  The  leader  of  the 
murderers  was  killed  soon  afterwards  by  one  of  his 
accomplices,  and  the  others  found  a  refuge  among 
the  Indians;  but  of  their  subsequent  fate  we  know 
nothing  positively,  except  that  they  were  never 
brought  to  justice,  if  any  one  of  them  returned  to 
Canada  or  France.  The  few  Frenchmen  remaining 
in  Texas  were  either  killed  or  captured  by  unfriendly 
Indians,  before  the  Spaniards  could  reach  the  place 
to  expel  these  intruders  on  their  domain*     La  Salle 


FKAXCE  IN    THE   MISSISSIPPI    VALLEY.       I9I 

himself  never  fouiul  a  burial  place,  for  his  body  was 
left  to  wolves  and  birds  of  prey.  His  name  has  not 
been  perpetuated  in  Louisiana,  though  it  has  been 
given  to  a  county  of  Texas  as  well  as  to  a  city  and 
county  of  Illinois,  which  was  originally  included  in 
French  Louisiana.  The  most  noteworthy  tribute 
to  his  memory  has  been  paid  by  the  historian  I'ark- 
man,  who  has  elevated  him  almost  to  the  dignity  of 
a  hero.  La  Salle's  indomitable  energy,  his  remark- 
able courage  in  the  face  of  disaster,his  inflexibility 
of  purpose  under  the  most  adverse  circumstances, 
must  be  always  fully  recognised,  but  at  the  same 
time  one  may  think  that  more  tact  and  skill  in  man- 
aging men,  more  readiness  to  bend  and  conciliate, 
might  have  spared  him  much  bitterness  and  trouble, 
and  even  saved  his  life  at  the  end.  That  he  did 
good  service  for  France  all  will  admit,  though  his 
achievx*ment  in  reaching  the  Mississippi  was  rendered 
relatively  easy  after  the  preliminary  expedition  of 
Jolliet  and  Marquette. 


XIV. 

CANADA   AND   ACADIA:    FK(»M    FKONTENAC   TO  THE 

TREATY   OF   UTRECHT. 


(1672-1713.) 


In  the  previous  chapter  I  have  shown  the  im- 
portant })art  that  the  Count  de  Frontenac  took  in 
stimulatin<^  the  enterprise  of  La  Salle  and  other  ex- 
plorers, and  it  now  remains  for  me  to  review  those 
other  features  of  the  administration  of  that  threat 
<^overnor,  which  more  or  less  influenced  the  fortunes 
of  the  province  committed  to  his  chari^e. 

A  brave  and  bold  soldier,  a  man  of  infinite  re- 
sources in  times  of  difficulty,  as  bold  to  conceive  as 
he  was  quick  to  carry  out  a  desi<^n,  di<^nified  and 
fascinating  in  his  manner  when  it  pleased  him, 
arrogant  and  obstinate  when  others  thwarted  him, 
having  a  keen  appreciation  of  the  Indian  character, 
selfish  where  his  personal  gain  was  concerned,  and 
yet  never  losing  sight  of  the  substantial  interests  of 
France  in  America,  the  Count  de  Frontenac  was 
able,  for  nineteen  years,  to  administer  the  affairs  of 
New   France  with   remarkable    ability,   despite  his 

192 


Frontenac,  from  Htbert's  Statue  at  Quebec. 
13  193 


194  'i^^^'    UTOKY  OF  CA.\Al)A. 

personal  weaknesses,  to  stimulate  and  concentrate 
her  energies  and  resources,  and  to  make  her  when 
he  died  a  power  in  America  far  beyond  what  her 
population  or  actual  strength  seemed  to  justify. 
The  I rotjuois  learned  at  last  to  tremble  at  his  name, 
and  the  Indian  allies  of  Canada,  from  the  Abenakis 
of  Acadia  to  the  Illinois  of  the  West,  could  trust  in 
his  desire  and  ability  to  assist  them  against  their 
ferocious  enemy.  As  is  the  case  with  all  great  men, 
his  faults  and  virtues  have  been  equally  exaggerated. 
The  Recollets,  whom  he  always  favoured,  could 
never  speak  too  well  of  him,  whilst  the;  Jesuits, 
whom  he  distrusted,  did  all  they  could  to  tarnish 
his  reputation. 

It  is  not  profitable  or  necessary  in  this  story  of 
Canada  to  dwell  on  the  details  of  Frontenac's  ad- 
ministration of  public  affairs  during  the  first  years 
of  his  regime  (1672- 1682),  which  were  chiefly  noted 
for  the  display  of  his  faults  of  character — especially 
his  obstinacy  and  impatience  of  all  opposition.  He 
was  constantly  at  conflict  with  the  bishop,  who  was 
always  asserting  the  supremacy  of  his  Church,  with 
the  intendant  Duchesneau,  who  was  simply  a  spy 
on  his  actions,  w^ith  the  Jesuits,  whom  he  disliked 
and  accused  of  even  being  interested  in  the  sale  of 
brandy,  and  with  traders  like  Governor  Perrot  of 
Montreal  who  eventually  found  himself  in  the  Bas- 
tile  for  a  few  days  for  having  defied  the  edict  of  the 
King  against  the  courcurs  dc  bois  who  were  under  his 
influence  and  helped  him  in  the  fur  trade. 

The  complaints  against  Frontenac  from  influential 
people  in  Canada  at  last  became  so  numerous  that 


CAXADA   AND   ACADIA.  1 95 

he  was  recalled  to  France  in  1682.  His  successor, 
La  Harre,  proved  himself  thoroughly  incapable. 
The  interests  of  the  province  were  seriously  threat- 
ened -xX.  that  time  by  the  intention  of  the  Iroquois 
to  destroy  the  Illinois  and  divert  the  western  traffic 
to  the  Dutch  and  Hnglish,  whose  carriers  they 
wished  to  become.  La  Harre  was  well  aware  how 
much  depended  on  the  protection  of  the  Illinois  and 
the  fidelity  of  the  Indians  on  the  lakes.  La  Hon- 
tan,  a  talkative  but  not  always  veracious  writer,  who 
was  in  Canada  at  this  time,  gives  us  an  insight  into 
the  weakness  of  the  governor,  whose  efforts  to  awe 
the  Iroquois  ended  in  an  abortive  expedition  which 
was  attacked  by  disease  and  did  not  get  beyond  La 
Famine,  now  Salmon  River,  in  the  Iroquois  country. 
The  famous  "  La  Grande  Gueulc,"  or  Big  Mouth, 
— so  called  on  account  of  his  eloquence, — made  a 
mockery  of  the  French  efforts  to  deceive  him  by  a 
pretence  of  strength,  and  openly  declared  the  inten- 
tion of  the  Iroquois  to  destroy  the  Illinois,  while  La 
Barre  dared  not  utter  a  defiant  word  in  behalf  of  his 
allies.  This  incapable  governor  was  soon  recalled 
and  the  Marquis  de  Denonville,  an  officer  of  dra- 
goons, sent  in  his  place.  One  of  the  most  notable 
incidents  of  the  new  administration  was  the  capture 
of  the  fortified  trading-posts  belonging  to  the  Eng- 
lish Company  of  Hudson's  Bay,  by  the  Chevalier  de 
Troyes  and  a  number  of  Canadians  from  Montreal, 
among  whom  were  the  three  famous  sons  of  Charles 
Le  Moyne,  Iberville,  Sainte-Helene,  and  Maricourt, 
the  former  of  whom  became  ere  long  the  most  dis- 
tinguished French  Canadian  of  his  time.     The  next 


196  THE    STORY  OF  i'AXADA, 

event  of  importance  was  the  invasion  of  the  country 
of  the  Senecas,  and  the  destruction  of  their  villages 
and  stores  of  provisions.  This  was  a  most  doubtful 
triumph,  since  it  left  the  Senecas  themselves  un- 
hurt. How  ineffectual  it  was  even  to  awe  the  Iro- 
quois, was  evident  from  the  massacre  of  La  Chine, 
near  Montreal,  in  the  Au<^ust  of  1689,  when  a  large 
band  fell  upon  the  village  during  a  stormy  night, 
burned  the  houses,  butchered  two  hundred  men, 
women  and  children,  and  probably  carried  off  at 
least  one  hundred  and  twenty  prisoners  before  they 
left  the  island  of  Montreal,  where  the  authorities 
and  people  seemed  paralysed  for  the  moment.  The 
whole  history  of  Canada  has  no  more  mournful  story 
to  tell  than  this  massacre  of  this  unhappy  settlement 
by  the  side  of  the  beautiful  lake  of  St.  Louis.  The 
Iroquois  had  never  forgiven  the  treachery  of  the 
governor  during  the  w^inter  of  1687,  at  Fort  Fron- 
tenac,  where  he  had  seized  a  large  number  of 
friendly  Indians  of  the  Five  Nations  who  had  settled 
in  the  neutral  villages  of  Kente  (now  Quintc)  and 
Ganneious  (now  Gananoque),  not  many  miles  from 
the  fort.  Some  of  the  men  w^ere  distributed  among 
the  missions  of  Quebec,  and  others  actually  sent  to 
labour  in  the  royal  galleys  of  France,  where  they 
remained  until  the  survivors  were  brought  back  by 
Frontenac,  when  he  and  other  Frenchmen  recog- 
nised the  enormity  of  the  crime  that  had  been  com- 
mitted by  Denonville,  who  is  immediately  responsible 
for  the  massacre  of  La  Chine.  The  Iroquois  never 
forgot  or  forgave. 
The  French  authorities  soon  recognised  the  fact 


CAAADA    AND  ACADIA.  1 97 

that  Denonville  was  entirely  unequal  to  the  critical 
condition  of  thini^s  in  Canada,  and  decided  in  1689 
to  send  Frontenac  back.  Durin<^  his  second  term, 
which  lasted  for  nearly  ten  years,  there  was  now 
and  then  some  friction  between  himself  and  the 
intendant,  on  matters  of  internal  government,  and 
between  himself  and  the  bishop  and  the  Jesuits  with 
respect  to  amusements  which  the  clergy  always  dis- 
countenanced;  but  he  displayed  on  the  whole  more 
tact  and  judgment  in  his  administration  of  public 
affairs.  Undoubtedly  the  responsibilities  now  rest- 
ing upon  him  tasked  the  energies  of  a  man  of 
seventy-two  years  of  age  to  the  utmost.  In  Acadia, 
whose  interests  were  now  immediately  connected 
with  those  of  Canada,  he  had  to  guard  agams*:  the 
aggressive  movements  of  New  England.  The  En- 
glish of  New  York  and  the  adjacent  colonies  were 
intriguing  with  the  Iroquois  and  the  Foxes,  always 
jealous  of  French  encroachments  in  the  northwest, 
and  encouraging  them  to  harass  the  French  settlers. 
The  efforts  of  the  English  to  establish  themselves  in 
Hudson's  Bay  and  Newfoundland,  had  to  be  met 
by  vigorous  action  on  the  part  of  Canadians.  In 
fact,  we  see  on  all  sides  the  increasing  difficulties  of 
France  in  America,  on  account  of  the  rapid  growth 
of  the  English  colonies. 

When  Frontenac  arrived  in  Canada,  war  had  been 
declared  between  France  and  England.  James  II. 
had  been  deposed  and  William  of  Orange  was  on 
the  English  throne.  Before  the  governor  left 
France  a  plan  had  been  devised  at  the  suggestion  of 
Callieres,  the  governor  of  Montreal,  for  the  conquest 


198  THE   STORY  OF  CANADA, 

of  New  York.  An  expedition  of  regular  troops  and 
Canadian  volunteers  were  to  descend  from  Canada 
and  assault  New  York  by  land,  simultaneously  with 
an  attack  by  a  French  squadron  from  the  sea.  Un- 
foreseen delays  prevented  the  enterprise  from  being 
carried  out,  when  success  was  possible.  Had  New 
York  and  Albany  been  captured,  Callieres  was  to 
have  been  the  new  governor.  Catholics  alone 
would  be  allowed  to  remain  in  the  province,  and  all 
the  other  inhabitants  would  be  exiled — an  atrocious 
design  which  was  to  be  successfully  executed  sixty 
years  later,  by  the  English  authorities,  in  the  Aca- 
dian settlements  of  Nova  Scotia. 

Count  de  Frontenac  organised  three  cxoeditic  ns 
in  1690  against  the  English  colonies,  with  the  view 
of  raising  the  depressed  spirits  of  the  Canadians  and 
showing  their  Indian  allies  how  far  Onontio's  arm 
would  reach,.  The  first  party,  led  by  Mantet  and 
Sainte-Helene,  and  comprising  among  the  volunteers 
Iberville,  marched  in  the  depth  of  winter  on  Corlaer 
(Schenectady),  surprised  the  sleeping  and  negligent 
inhabitants,  killed  a  considerable  number,  took 
many  prisoners,  and  then  burned  nearly  all  the 
houses.  The  second  party,  under  the  command  of 
Frangois  Hertel,  destroyed  the  small  settlement  of 
Salm  ^n  Falls  on  the  Piscataqua,  and  later  formed  a 
junction  w^ith  the  third  party,  led  by  Portneuf  of 
Quebec,  and  with  a  number  of  Abenakis  under 
Baron  de  Saint-Castin.  The  settlement  at  Casco 
Bay,  defended  by  Fort  Loyal  (Portland)  surrendered 
after  a  short  struggle  to  these  combined  forces,  and 
the  garrison  was  treated  with  great  inhumanity.    The 


CAS'ADA    and  ACADIA,  1 99 

c-ueltics  practised  by  the  Indian  allies  invested  these 
i\ids  with  additional  terrors. 

While  Frontenac  was  congratulating  himself  ort 
the  success  of  this  ruthless  border  warfare,  and  on 
the  arrival  at  Montreal  of  a  richly  laden  fleet  of 
canoes  from  the  west,  the  English  colonies  concerted 
measures  of  retaliation  in  a  congress  held  at  New 
York.  The  blow  first  fell  on  Acadia,  which  had 
been  in  the  possession  of  France  since  the  treaty  of 
Breda.  Port  Royal  was  taken  without  difficulty  in 
1690  by  Sir  William  Phips,  and  the  shore  settle- 
ments at  La  Heve  and  Cape  Sable  ravaged  by  his 
orders. 

Another  expedition  organised  in  New  York  and 
Connecticut  to  attack  M^^ntreal,  was  a  failure,  al- 
though a  raid  was  made  by  Captain  John  Schuyler 
into  the  country,  south  of  Montreal,  and  a  number 
of  persons  killed  at  La  Prairie.  A  more  important 
expedition  was  now  given  to  the  command  of  Phips, 
a  sturdy  figure  in  colonial  annals,  who  had  sprung 
from  humble  parentage  in  Maine,  and  w^on  both 
money  and  distinction  by  the  recovery  of  the  riches 
of  a  Spanish  galleon  which  had  been  wrecked  on 
the  Spanish  Main  half  a  century  before.  His  fleet, 
consisting  of  thirty-tjvo  vessels — including  several 
men-of-war,  and  carrying  2300  troops,  exclusively 
provincials,  fishermen,  farmers,  and  sailors — ap- 
peared in  the  middle  of  October,  1690,  off  Quebec, 
whose  defences  had  been  strengthened  by  Fronte- 
nac, and  where  a  large  force  had  assembled  from  the 
French  towms  and  settlements.  As  soon  as  the  fleet 
came  to  an  anchorage,  just  below  the  town,  Phips 


200  THE  STONY  OF  CANADA. 

sent  a  messenger  to  present  a  letter  to  Frontenac, 
asking  him  to  surrender  the  fort.  This  envoy  was 
led  blindfolded  up  the  heights  and  brought  into  the 
presence  of  the  governor,  who  was  awaiting  him  in 
the  fort,  surrounded  by  a  number  of  officers  dressed 
in  the  brilliant  uniform  of  the  French  army.  As 
soon  as  he  had  recovered  from  the  surprise  which  for 
the  moment  he  felt,  when  the  bandage  was  taken  off 
his  eyes,  and  he  saw  so  brilliant  an  array  of  soldierly 
men,  he  read  the  letter,  which,  "  by  the  orders  of 
the  King  and  Queen  of  England  and  of  the  govern- 
ment of  the  colony  of  New  England,"  demanded 

the  surrender  of  the  forts  and  castles  undem.ol- 
ished,  and  of  all  munitions  untouched,  as  also  an 
immediate  surrender  of  your  persons  and  property 
at  my  discretion."  The  envoy,  when  the  whole 
letter  was  read,  took  out  his  watch,  and  remarking 
that  it  was  ten  o'clock,  asked  that  he  be  sent  back 
by  eleven.  Count  de  Frontenac's  answer  was  defi- 
ant. He  refused  to  recognise  William  of  Orange  as 
the  lawful  sovereign  of  England,  and  declared  him 
an  **  usurper."  The  haughty  governor  continued 
in  the  same  strain  for  a  few  moments  longer,  and 
when  he  had  closed,  Phips's  messenger  asked  that 
the  answer  be  given  in  writing.  "  No,"  he  replied, 
"  I  have  none  to  give  but  by  the  mouth  of  my  can- 
non ;  and  let  your  general  learn  that  this  is  no  way 
to  send  a  summons  to  a  man  like  me.  Let  him  do 
the  best  on  his  side,  as  I  am  resolved  to  do  on 
mine." 

Phips  and  his  officers  determined  to  attack  Que- 
bec in  the  rear  by  the  way  of  Beauport,  simultane- 


CANADA   AND  ACAD/A.  201 

ously  with  a  fierce  cannonading  by  the  fleet.  A 
considerable  force,  under  the  command  of  Major 
Walley,  landed,  and  after  some  days  of  unhappy 
experiences,  during  which  Phips  showed  his  inca- 
pacity to  manage  the  siege,  the  former  was  obliged 
to  find  refuge  in  the  ships,  without  having  succeeded 
in  crossing  the  St.  Charles.  By  this  time  Frontenac 
had  at  least  three  thousand  men,  many  of  them  vet- 
erans, in  Quebec,  and  Phips  considered  it  his  only 
prudent  course  to  return  to  Boston,  where  he  arrived 
with  the  loss  of  many  vessels  and  men,  chiefly  from 
disasters  at  sea.  The  P^rench  had  lost  very  few  men 
by  the  cannonading  and  in  the  skirmishing  on  the 
St.  Charles — probably  not  more  than  sixty  killed 
and  wounded — and  celebrated  their  victory  with 
great  enthusiasm.  Religious  processions  marched 
through  the  streets  to  the  cathedral  and  churches, 
Te  Dcums  were  chanted,  the  colonial  admiral's  flag, 
which  had  been  cut  down  by  a  lucky  shot  from  the 
fort,  was  borne  aloft  in  triumph,  a  new  church  was 
consecrated  to  Notre  Dame  de  la  Victoirey  and  a 
medal  was  struck  in  Paris  in  commemoration  of  the 
event.  In  Boston,  the  people  received  with  dismay 
the  news  of  the  failure  of  an  expedition  which  had 
ended  so  ignobly  and  involved  them  so  heavily  in 
debt. 

The  Iroquois,  in  league  with  the  English  of  New 
York,  w^here  the  able  governor  Dongan  and  his 
successor  Andros,  carefully  watched  over  the  inter- 
ests of  their  colony,  continued  to  be  a  constant 
menace  to  the  French  on  the  St.  Lawrence,  and  to 
their  allies  in  the   West.     In  order  to  strengthen 


202  THE    SIORY   OF   CANADA. 

themselves  with  the  Five  Nations,  the  New  York 
authorities  sent  Major  Peter  Schuyler,  with  a  force 
of  Mohawks,  Dutch,  and  En<^Hsh,  to  harass  the 
settlements  near  Montreal.  An  obstinate  fi<^ht 
occurred  at  La  Prairie  between  him  and  a  consider- 
able force  of  troops,  Canadians,  llurons,  and  Iroquois 
of  the  Canadian  mission  under  Varennes,  an  able 
officer,  but  Schuyler  succeeded  in  breaking  through 
the  ranks  of  his  enemies  and  reaching  the  Richelieu, 
whence  he  returned  to  Albany  without  further  losses. 
In  Acadia,  however,  the  French  gained  an  advantage 
by  the  recovery  of  Port  Royal  by  Villebon. 

At  this  time  occurred  an  interesting  episode.  A 
young  girl  of  only  fourteen  years,  Madelainc,  daugh- 
ter of  the  seigneur  of  V'crcheres,  on  the  south  side 
of  the  St.  Lawrence,  ten  miles  from  Montreal,  suc- 
cessfully held  '  ^r  father's  fort  and  block-house 
against  a  band  of  Iroquois,  with  the  aid  of  only  six 
persons,  two  of  whom  were  boys,  and  one  an  old 
man.  Day  and  night,  for  a  week,  she  was  on  the 
watch  against  surprise  by  the  Indians,  who  were 
entirely  deceived  by  her  actions,  and  supposed  the 
fort  was  held  by  a  garrison.  At  last  a  reinforcement 
came  to  the  succour  of  the  brave  girl,  and  the  Indians 
retreated.  The  courage  displayed  by  this  Canadian 
heroine  is  an  evidence  of  the  courage  shown  by  the 
people  of  Canada  generally,  under  the  trying  cir- 
cumstances that  so  constantly  surrounded  them 
throughout  the  whole  of  the  PVench  regime. 

In  1693  the  Mohawks  were  punished  by  an  ex- 
pedition composed  of  regulars,  militia,  and  bush- 
rangers,   with    a    large    Indian    contingent,    chiefly 


Canada  and  acadia.  ioi 

drawn  from  the  Iroquois  mission  near  Montreal,  the 
modern  settlement  of  Caughnawaga.  This  force 
was  led  by  Mantet,  Courtemanche,  and  La  Noue, 
who  succeeded  in  destroying  the  Mohawk  villages 
after  a  fierce  fight,  in  killing  a  large  number,  and  in 
capturing  several  hundreds.  The  English,  who  had 
early  information  of  the  invasion,  sent  Major  Peter 
Schuyler  to  pursue  the  retreating  force,  but  it  was 
too  late.  The  immediate  result  of  this  success  was 
a  revival  of  trade.  A  large  fleet  of  canoes  came 
down  from  the  upper  lakes  with  a  rich  store  of  furs, 
that  had  been  accumulriting  at  Mackinac  and  other 
posts  for  nearly  three  years,  on  account  of  the  Iro- 
quois. Frontenac's  triumph  was  complete,  and  he 
was  called  far  and  wide  **  the  father  of  the  people, 
the  preserver  of  the  country." 

Returning  for  the  moment  to  the  Atlantic  shores 
of  Acadia,  we  find  that  the  French  arms  triumphed 
in  1696  at  Pemaquid,  always  an  important  point  in 
those  days  of  border  warfare. 

The  fort,  which  was  of  some  pretensions,  was  cap- 
tured by  the  French  under  Iberville  and  the  Aben- 
akis  under  Saint-Castin,  and  after  its  destruction 
Iberville  went  on  to  Newfoundland,  where  the 
French  ruined  the  English  settlements  at  St.  John 
and  other  places.  Then  the  fleet  proceeded  to 
Hudson's  Bay,  where  the  French  recaptured  the 
trading  posts  which  had  been  retaken  a  short  time 
previously  by  the  English. 

In  the  meantime  Frontenac  had  decided  on  an 
expedition  against  the  Onondagas.  Early  in  July, 
1696,  despite  his  age,  he  led  the  expedition  to  Fort 


204  ^■^^^'    STOA'V   OF  CAXADA, 

Frontcnac,  wliich  he  had  restored,  and  after  a  dehiy 
of  a  few  days  he  went  on  to  the  Onondaga  town, 
which  he  destroyed  with  all  its  stores  of  provisions, 
and  its  standin^^  fields  of  niai/e.  The  ( )neida  vil- 
Ia[;e  was  also  destroyed,  and  a  number  of  men  taken 
prisoners  as  hostai;es  for  their  ^ood  behaviour.  The 
Onondagas  had  fled,  and  the  only  one  captured  was 
an  aged  chief,  who  was  wantonly  tortured  to  death. 
It  was  now  clear  to  the  Iroquois  that  the  English  of 
New  York  could  not  defend  them  from  the  constant 
raids  of  the  French,  and  they  now  made  offers  of 
peace,  provided  it  did  not  include  the  western  allies 
of  France.  Frontenac,  however,  was  resolved  to 
make  no  peace,  except  on  terms  which  would  ensure 
the  security  of  the  French  for  many  years.  He 
died  in  the  November  of  1698  amid  the  regrets  of 
the  people  of  all  classes  who  admired  his  great  qual- 
ities as  a  leader  of  men. 

Callieres,  of  Montreal,  an  able  and  brave  soldier, 
who  succeeded  him,  soon  brought  the  Iroquois  diffi- 
culty to  an  issue.  The  calumet  was  smoked  and 
peace  duly  signed,  in  a  great  council  held  in  the 
August  of  1 70 1,  at  Montreal,  where  assembled  rep- 
resentatives of  the  Indian  nations  of  the  West,  of 
the  Abenakis,  and  of  the  Iroquois.  From  that  time 
forward,  Canada  had  no  reason  to  fear  the  Iroquois, 
who  saw  that  the  French  were  their  masters.  The 
trade  with  the  West  was  now  free  from  the  interrup- 
tions which  had  so  long  crippled  it. 

The  Treaty  of  Ryswick,  which  was  ratified  in 
1697,  lasted  for  only  five  years.  Then  broke  out 
the  great  conflict  known  in  Europe  as  the  War  of 


< 

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a. 


O 
(4 


2o6  rut:  stohy  of  Canada, 

the  Spanish  Succession.  The  reckless  ambition  of 
Louis  XI  V\,  then  in  the  plenitude  of  his  power,  had 
coveted  the  throne  of  Spain  for  his  own  family,  and 
brought  him  into  conflict  with  Enghmd  when  he 
recognised  the  Pretender  as  the  rightful  heir  to  the 
English  Crown.  Queen  Anne,  the  daughter  of 
James  II.  and  sister  of  Mary,  queen  of  William  III., 
had  succeeded  to  the  throne,  and  the  war  which 
was  declared  on  the  15th  May,  1702,  was  thereafter 
known  in  America  by  her  name.  The  Abenakis, 
who  had  promised  peace,  broke  their  pledges,  and 
joined  the  French  Canadian  bands  in  attacking 
Wells,  Saco,  and  Haverhill,  and  the  annals  of  New 
England  tell  many  a  sad  story  of  burning  homes,  of 
murdered  men  and  women.  The  people  of  New 
England  retaliated  on  Acadia,  and  several  ineffective 
attempts  were  made  to  take  Port  Royal  by  Colonels 
Church  and  Wainwright,  who  proved  their  inca- 
pacity. A  movement  was  then  made  for  the  con- 
quest of  Canada  by  the  English  colonists,  but  it 
failed  in  conseq'ience  of  an  European  emergency 
having  diverted  the  British  squadron  intended  for 
America  to  the  shores  of  Portugal.  An  expedition 
was  next  organised  in  17 10,  under  the  command  of 
Colonel  Nicholson,  a  man  of  much  sagacity  and 
audacity,  though  of  little  or  no  military  experience, 
for  the  capture  of  Port  Royal,  which  was  surrendered 
by  the  governor,  Subercase,  and  from  that  day  this 
historic  place  has  been  known  as  Annapolis  Royal, 
in  honour  of  the  reigning  so/ereign.  It  was  not 
until  the  following  year  that  the  British  Government 
yielded  to  the  urgent  representations  of  the  colonies, 


CA/VAD.4   AM)  AC.tD/A.  20/ 

and  sent  to  America  a  powerful  armament  to 
attempt  the  concpiest  of  Canada.  The  fleet  was 
under  the  orders  of  Sir  liovenden  Walker,  whose 
incapacity  was  only  e([uallcd  by  that  of  the  com- 
mander of  the  troops,  Colonel  Hill.  After  the  loss 
of  ei<rht  transports  and  nearly  nine  hundred  men  in 
a  storm  near  the  Isle  aux  (Kufs,  at  the  entrance  of 
the  St.  Lawrence,  the  incapable  admiral  decided  to 
give  up  the  project  of  besie^in<^  Quebec,  and  with- 
out even  venturin^^  to  attack  the  little  French  post 
of  Plaisance,  he  returned  to  En<^land,  where  he  was 
recL.'ved  with  marks  of  disfavour  on  all  sides,  and 
forced  soon  afterwards  to  retire  to  South  Carolina. 
While  New  England  was  sadly  disappointed  by  this 
second  failure  to  take  Quebec,  the  PVench  of  Canada 
considered  it  a  providential  interposition  in  their 
behalf,  and  the  church,  which  had  been  first  named 
after  the  defeat  of  Phips,  was  now  dedicated  to 
Notre  Dame  dcs  I  let  aires. 

All  this  while  the  French  dominion  was  slowly 
and  surely  extending  into  the  great  valleys  of  the 
West  and  South.  A  fort  had  been  built  opposite 
to  the  Jesuit  mission  of  St.  Ignace,  on  the  other 
side  of  the  Strait  of  Michillimackinac,  and  it  was  now 
also  proposed  to  make  the  French  headquarters  at 
Detroit,  which  had  been  founded  by  Antoine  de  la 
Mothe-Cadillac,  despite  the  opposition  of  the  Jesu- 
its, who  wished  to  have  the  mission  field  of  the  West 
in  their  own  hands,  and  resented  the  intention  to 
establish  Recollets  and  other  priests  at  the  new  post. 
As  soon  as  the  French  established  themselves  per- 
manently at  this  key  to  the  Lakes  and  West,  the 


208  THE   SrOKY  OF   CAXADA. 

Knj^lisli  |)ractically  ^avc  up  for  fifty  years  the  hope 
of  acquirinj^^  the  Northwest,  and  controlling  the 
Indian  trade.  I'Vencli  i)ionecrs  were  pushin^^  their 
way  into  the  valleys  of  the  Illinois  and  the  Wabash. 
I'errot  and  Le  .^ueur  hatl  taken  possession  of  the 
rej^ion  watered  by  the  upper  Mississippi  and  its 
affluents.  Iberville  and  Bienville  had  made  small 
settlements  at  Hiloxi,  Mobile,  and  on  the  banks  of 
the  Mississippi,  and  with  them  was  associated  (^ne 
of  the  most  admirable  figures  of  Canadian  history, 
Henry  de  Tonty,  who  had  left  his  fort  on  the  Illi- 
nois. In  1 71  I  Louisiana  was  made  a  separate  gov- 
ernment, with  Mobile  as  the  capital,  and  included 
the  whole  re^non  from  the  Lakes  to  the  (iulf,  and 
from  the  Alle^hanies  to  tiie  Rocky  Mountains.  By 
the  time  of  the  Treaty  of  Utrecht  the  Indian  tribes 
of  the  West  were,  for  the  most  part,  in  the  interest 
of  the  French,  with  the  exception  of  the  Sioux, 
Sauks,  and  Foxes,  whose  hostility  was  for  a  lon^ 
time  an  impediment  to  their  progress  on  the  upper 
reaches  of  the  Mississippi. 

Louis  XIV'.  was  humbled  by  Marlborough  on  the 
battlefields  of  Blenheim,  Ramillies,  and  Oudenarde, 
and  Obliged  to  agree  to  the  Treaty  of  Utrecht, 
which  was  a  triumph  for  England,  since  it  gave  her 
possession  of  Acadia,  Hudson's  Bay,  Newfoundland 
(subject  to  the  rights  of  France  in  the  fisheries),  and 
made  the  important  concession  that  France  should 
never  molest  the  Five  Nations  under  the  dominion 
of  Great  Britain.  Such  questions  as  the  limits  of 
Acadia,  and  the  bounds  of  the  territory  of  the  Iro- 
quois, were  to  be  among  the  subjects  of  fruitful 
controversy  for  half  a  century. 


CHEVALIER   D'IBERVILLE. 


209 


XV. 


ACADIA   AND   ILE    ROYALE,    FROM   THE   TREATY   OF 

UTRECHT   TO    THE   TREATY    OF 

AIX-LA-CHAPELLE. 


(1713-1748.) 


The  attention  of  Louis  XIV.  and  his  ministers 
was  now  naturally  directed  to  Cape  Breton,  which, 
like  the  greater  island  of  Newfoundland,  guards  the 
eastern  approaches  to  the  valley  of  the  St.  Lawrence. 
Cape  Breton  had  been  neglected  since  the  da\s  of 
Denys,  though  its  harbours  had  been  for  over  two 
centuries  frequented  by  sailors  of  all  nationalities. 
Plaisance,  the  Placentia  of  the  Portuguese,  had  been 
for  years  the  headquarters  of  the  French  fisheries  in 
the  Gulf  of  St.  Lawrence,  but  when  Newfoundland 
was  ceded  to  the  English,  all  the  French  officials 
and  fishermen  removed  to  English  Harbour,  on  the 
eastern  coast  of  Cape  Breton,  ever  since  known  as 
Louisbourg.  The  island  itself  was  called  lie  Roy- 
ale,  and  its  first  governor  was  M.  de  Costabelle,  who 
had  held  a  similar  position  at  Plaisance.  It  was  not, 
however,   until   1720,  that  France  commenced  the 


210 


OF 


17.  Fish  Staines. 

18.  Quay. 

ig.    Black  Point. 


1.  Princess  Bastion. 

2.  Hospital. 

3.  Queen's  Bastion. 

4.  Rfecullets'  Parish  UiurtU. 


3.   The  King's  l!a-tioii  aii.l  Barracks 
(>.   Royal  Storehiiuses. 
7.  (iovernor's  H'nise. 
S.  Bakeliouses. 


\  IKW  Ol-    l.<.)ri>lK>L'Rl.  IN  1731.— lKi>M  A  Skkt 

9.    llilliar;!  Rooms 

10.  Dauphin  Bastir 

11.  l>auphin  Ciate. 

12.  Suburb  near  IJ; 


SKKK  II    IN     I  UK    1'AKI>   AKCHIVtS. 

OOIIIS. 

Ba>>tii>ii  ami  liattt-rv. 

date. 

:ar  Daui'hiii  (jatc. 


13.  liallcry  on   Kiel  at  I.iitraiiic. 

14.  I.ij;lith(iuse. 

I ;.  Kocliefurt  Point, 

16.  Ponil. 


17.    I'i-h  Stat;es. 

1 3.    <,Hiay. 

19.    I'llatk  I'liint, 


A  CAD/ A    AND  ll.h    NO  YALE.  211 

construction  of  the  fortifications  of  Louisbourg, 
which  eventually  cost  her  over  ten  million  dollars  of 
modern  money,  and  even  then,  they  were  never 
completed  in  accordance  with  the  original  design,  on 
account  of  the  enormous  expense  which  far  exceeded 
the  original  estimates.  The  fortifications  were  built 
on  an  oblong  neck  of  land  on  the  southern  shore  of 
the  port,  which  lies  only  two  leagues  from  that  fa- 
mous cape  from  which  the  island  takes  its  name.  The 
fortress  occupied  an  area  of  over  one  hundred  acres, 
and  was  planned  on  the  best  system  of  Vauban  and 
other  great  masters  of  engineering  skill,  who  in- 
tended it  should  be,  as  indeed  it  was,  despite  some 
faulty  details  of  construction,  the  most  complete 
example  of  a  strongly  fortified  city  in  America.  The 
harbour  was  also  defended  by  batteries  on  an  island 
at  the  entrance,  and  at  other  important  points,  while 
there  were  fortified  works  and  small  garrisons  at 
Port  Toulouse  (St.  Peter's)  and  Port  Dauphin  (St. 
Anne's).  The  government  of  the  island  was  modelled 
on  that  of  Canada,  to  which  it  was  subordinate,  and 
the  governor  was  generally  a  military  man.  During 
the  years  the  fortress  was  in  possession  of  the 
French,  there  were  probably,  on  an  average,  nearly 
two  thousand  people  living  in  the  town  and  vicinity, 
but  this  number  w^as  increased  in  the  time  of  war  by 
the  inhabitants  of  the  adjacent  ports  and  bays. 

During  the  thirty  years  that  elapsed  between  the 
Treaty  of  Utrecht  and  the  breaking  out  of  war  be- 
tween France  and  Great  Britain,  the  people  of  New 
England  found  that  the  merely  nominal  possession 
of  Acadia  by  the  English  was  of  little  security  to 


212  THE   STOKY   OF  CA\ADA. 

them,  while  the  French  still  held  the  islaiul  of  Cape 
Hreton  and  had  the  fealty  of  the  Indians  and  Aca- 
dians,  who  were  looking  forward  to  the  restoration 
of  the  country  to  its  former  owners.  England  sys- 
tematically neglected  Nova  Scotia,  where,  until  the 
foundation  of  Halifax,  her  only  sign  of  sovereignty 
was  the  dilapillated  fort  at  Annapolis,  with  an  insig- 
nificant garrison,  utterly  unable  to  awe  the  Acadian 
French,  and  bring  them  completely  under  the  au- 
thority (jf  the  Ikitish  Crown.  French  emissaries, 
chiefly  priests,  — notably  the  treacherous  Le  Loutre 
— were  constantly  at  work  among  the  Acadians, 
Micmacs,  and  Abenakis,  telling  them  that  France 
would  soon  regain  her  dominion  in  Acadia.  For 
years  the  Abenakis  tomahawked  the  helpless  English 
colonists  that  had  made  their  homes  in  the  present 
State  of  Maine,  in  the  vicinity  of  the  Kennebec  and 
the  Penobscot.  The  insidious  policy  of  Vaudreuil 
and  other  governors  of  Canada,  acting  under  instruc- 
tions from  France,  was  to  keep  alive  the  hostility  of 
the  Abenakis  so  as  to  prevent  the  settlement  of  that 
region  known  as  Northern  New  England,  one  of 
whose  rivers,  the  Kennebec,  gave  easy  access  to  the 
St.  Lawrence  near  Quebec.  From  Annapolis  to 
Canseau  the  Micmacs  destroyed  life  and  property, 
and  kept  the  English  posts  in  constant  fear. 

New  England  took  a  signal  revenge  at  last  on  the 
cruel  and  treacherous  Abenakis,  and  inflicted  on 
them  a  blow  from  which  they  never  recovered.  At 
Norridgewock  perished  the  famous  missionary,  Se- 
bastian Rale,  beneath  whose  black  robe  beat  the 
heart  pf  a  dauntless  soldier,  whose  highest  aspira^ 


A  CAD /A   AND  ILE  ROY  ALE.  21  3 

tions  were  to  establish  his  creed  and  promote  the 
ambitious  desi<;ns  of  France  in  Acadia.  A  peace 
was  made  in  1726  between  the  colonists  and  the 
Abenakis,  but  New  Eni^land  felt  she  had  no  efficient 
security  for  its  continuance  while  Acadian  and 
Indian  could  see  in  the  ^reat  fortress  of  Cape  Breton 
powerful  evidence  that  France  was  not  yet  willing; 
to  give  up  the  contest  for  dominion  in  Acadia. 
Northern  New  England  became  now  of  relatively 
little  importance  in  view  of  the  obvious  designs  of 
France  to  regain  Nova  Scotia. 

We  have  now  come  to  an  important  period  in  the 
history  of  America  as  well  as  of  Elurope.  In  1739 
Walpole  was  forced  to  go  to  war  with  Spain,  at  the 
dictation  of  the  commercial  classes,  who  wished  to 
obtain  control  of  the  Spanish  Main.  Then  followed 
the  War  of  the  Austrian  Succession,  in  which  France 
broke  her  solemn  pledge  to  Charles  VI.,  Emperor  of 
Germany,  that  she  would  support  his  daughter, 
Maria  Theresa,  in  her  rights  to  reign  ov^er  his  hered- 
itary dominions.  But  when  the  Emperor  was  dead, 
France  and  other  Powers  proceeded  to  promote 
their  own  ambitious  and  selfish  designs.  France 
wished  to  possess  the  rich  Netherlands,  and  Spain, 
Milan;  Frederick  of  Prussia  had  no  higher  desire 
than  to  seize  Silesia,  and  to  drive  Austria  from  Ger- 
many. Bavaria  claimed  the  Austrian  duchy  of 
Bohemia.  Maria  Theresa  was  to  have  only  Hun- 
gary and  the  duchy  of  Austria.  The  King  of  Eng- 
land was  jealous  of  Prussia,  and  thought  more  of  his 
Hanoverian  throne  than  of  his  English  crown.  It 
became  the  interest  of  England  to  assist  Austria  and 


214  THE   STOk'Y  OF  CAA^ADA. 

prevent  the  success  of  France,  now  the  plly  of  Spain, 
forced  to  defend  her  colonial  possessions  in  America. 
The  complications  in  Europe  at  last  compelled  France 
and  England  to  fight  at  Dettingen  in  1743,  and 
George  II.  won  a  doubtful  victory,  but  war  was  not 
actually  declared  between  these  two  nations  until 
some  months  later.  England  had  no  reason  to  con- 
gratulate herself  on  the  results,  either  in  Europe  or 
America.  Her  fleet  met  only  with  disaster,  and  her 
commerce  was  destroyed  on  the  Spanish  Main. 
Four  years  later  she  won  a  victory  over  the  Spanish 
fleet  in  the  Mediterranean,  but  hardly  had  her  peo- 
ple ceased  celebrating  the  event,  than  they  heard 
that  the  combined  forces  of  Hanover,  Holland,  and 
England,  under  the  Duke  of  Cumberland,  had  been 
badly  beaten  by  Marshal  Saxe  at  Fontenoy. 

It  was  at  this  time,  when  the  prospects  of  Eng- 
land were  so  gloomy  on  the  continent  of  Europe, 
that  Englishmen  heard,  with  surprise  and  gratifica- 
tion, that  the  strong  fortress  of  Louisbourg  in 
French  America  had  surrendered  to  the  audacious 
attack  of  four  thousand  colonists  of  New  England. 

A  combination  of  events  had  aided  the  success  of 
the  brave  enterprise.  The  news  of  the  declaration 
of  war  reached  Louisbourg  at  least  two  months 
before  it  was  known  in  Boston,  and  the  French  Gov- 
ernor, M.  Duquesnel,  immediately  sent  out  expedi- 
tions to  capture  the  English  posts  in  Nova  Scotia. 
Canseau,  at  the  entrance  of  the  strait  of  that  name, 
was  easily  taken,  and  the  garrison  carried  to  Louis- 
bourg, but  Annapolis  Royal  was  successfully  de- 
fended   by  Colonel   Mascarene,   then    governor   of 


ACADIA   AND  ILE   ROY  ALE.  21$ 

Nova  Scotia.  All  these  events  had  their  direct 
influence  on  the  expedition  which  New  England 
sent  in  the  spring  of  1745  against  Louisbourg.  The 
prisoners  who  had  been  captured  at  Canseau  had 
remained  until  the  autumn  in  Louisbourg,  and  the 
accounts  they  brought  back  of  its  condition  gave 
Shirley  and  others  reason  to  believe  that  if  an  expe- 
dition was,  without  loss  of  time,  sent  against  it, 
there  would  be  a  fair  chance  of  success.  Not  only 
did  they  learn  that  the  garrison  was  small,  but  that 
it  was  discontented,  and  a  mutiny  had  actually 
broken  out  on  account  of  the  soldiers  not  having 
received  the  usual  additions  to  their  regular  pay  for 
work  on  the  fortifications.  The  ramparts  were 
stated  to  be  defective  in  more  than  one  place,  while 
gales  and  other  causes  had  delayed  the  arrival  of  the 
ships  which  arrived  every  year  with  provisions  and 
reinforcements.  These  facts  gave  additional  confi- 
dence to  Governor  Shirley  of  Massachusetts,  William 
Vaughan  of  New  Hampshire,  and  many  influential 
men  who  had  already  conceived  the  idea  of  striking 
a  blow  at  the  French  which  would  give  the  English 
control  of  the  whole  coast  from  Cape  Sable  to  the 
entrance  of  the  St.  Lawrence. 

The  expedition  against  Louisbourg  consisted  of 
over  four  thousand  men,  of  whom  Massachusetts, 
which  then  included  the  present  State  of  Maine, 
contributed  nearly  one-third.  Colonel  Pepperrell 
of  Kittery  on  the  Piscataqua,  who  had  command, 
with  the  title  of  lieutenant-general,  was  a  man  of 
wealth  and  influence,  though  without  any  military 
experience.    His  excellent  judgment  and  undaunted 


2l6  TlfE   STORY  OF  CANADA, 

courapje,  however,  contributed  largely  to  the  success 
of  this  bold  venture.  Captain  Edward  1  ynj^^,  a 
capable  colonial  sailor,  was  the  commodore  of  the 
little  fleet  of  thirteen  vessels,  carryinj^r  in  all  about 
two  hundred  guns.  The  Puritan  spirit  of  New  Eng- 
land had  much  influence  in  organising  an  expedi- 
tion, and  whose  flag  had  a  motto  suggested  by  the 
Methodist  revivalist,  Whitfield:  *■'  Nil  dcspcrandiim 
Christo  lime/'  The  story  of  the  success  of  the 
New  England  troops,  in  conjunction  with  the  small 
English  fleet,  under  the  command  of  Commodore 
Warren,  has  been  often  told,  and  we  need  not  dwell 
on  its  details.  M.  Duchambon  was  at  the  time  gov- 
ernor of  Louisbourg,  and  maintained  the  defence  for 
nearly  forty  days.  The  capitulation  of  the  fortress 
was  hastened  by  the  fact  that  the  English  fleet  cap- 
tured the  French  frigate  Vigilantly  on  whose  arrival 
the  garrison  had  been  depending  for  weeks.  On 
the  afternoon  of  June  17th,  General  Pepperrell 
marched  at  the  head  of  his  army  through  the  West 
or  Dauphin  gate  into  the  town,  and  received  the 
keys  from  the  commandant,  who,  with  his  garrison 
drawn  up  in  line,  received  him  in  the  King's  bastion. 
One  hundred  and  fifty  years  later  a  granite  column 
was  raised  on  the  same  historic  ground  in  honour  of 
this  famous  victory,  which  caused  such  rejoicings 
throughout  England  and  America. 

By  the  articles  of  capitulation,  the  garrison  and 
residents  of  Louisbourg,  probably  two  thousand  per- 
sons in  all,  were  transported  to  France.  The  set- 
tlement of  Port  Toulouse  and  Port  Dauphin  had 
been  captured,  the  first  before,  and  the  other  during 


A  CAD/ A   AND  HE   KOYAIE.  2\J 

the  si'e^e.  The  leader  of  the  New  K'l^dand  expedi- 
tion was  rewarded  with  a  baronetcy,  the  first  dis- 
tinction of  the  kind  ever  ^iven  to  a  colonist,  while 
Warren  w^as  promoted  to  the  rank  of  rear-admiral  of 
the  blue. 

If  the  English  Government  had  fully  understood 
the  necessities  of  their  American  colonies,  they 
would  have  immediatelv  followed  the  advice  of 
Governor  Shirley,  who  was  a  man  of  statesmanlike 
views  and  bold  conception,  though  he  possessed  no 
capacity  as  a  leader  of  military  operations,  as  his 
later  career  in  America  proved.  He  suggested  that 
an  expedition  should  attack  Montreal  by  the  usual 
route  of  Lake  Champlain,  while  an  English  fleet 
ascended  the  St.  Lawrence  and  besieged  Quebec. 
AH  the  colonies  set  to  work  with  considerable  energy 
to  carry  out  this  scheme,  but  it  came  to  nought,  in 
consequence  of  the  failure  of  the  Duke  of  New- 
castle, the  most  incapable  statesman  ever  at  the 
head  of  imperial  affairs,  to  redeem  his  promise.  It 
was  then  proposed  to  attack  Fort  Frederick  at 
Crown  Point,  on  the  western  side  of  Lake  Cham- 
plain,  where  it  contracts  to  a  narrow  river,  but  its 
progress  was  arrested  by  the  startling  news  that  the 
French  were  sending  out  a  fleet  to  take  Cape  Breton 
and  Acadia,  and  attack  Boston  and  other  places  on 
the  Atlantic  sea-board. 

France  had  heard  with  dismay  of  the  loss  of  Cape 
Breton,  which  she  recognised  as  a  key  to  the  St. 
Lawrence,  and  made  two  efforts  to  recover  it  before 
the  war  closed  in  1748.  One  of  the  noblest  fleets 
that  ever  sailed  from  the  shores  of  France  left  Ro- 


2l8  TfrE  STORY  OF  CANADA. 

chclle  in  1746  for  Cape  Breton,  under  the  command 
of  M.  de  la  Rochefoucauld,  the  Duke  d'Anville,  an 
able,  sensitive  man,  who,  however,  had  had  no 
naval  experience.  Storm  and  pestilence  attacked 
the  fleet,  which  found  a  refuse  in  the  harbour  of 
Chebouctou,  afterwards  Halifax,  where  the  unfor- 
tunate Admiral  died  from  an  apopleptic  seizure.  I  lis 
successor,  M.  d'Estournelle,  committed  suicide  in 
a  fit  of  despondency  caused  by  the  responsibility 
thrown  upon  him,  when  men  were  dyin^  by  hun- 
dreds every  day  on  those  lonely  Acadian  shores. 
The  French  lost  between  two  and  three  thousand 
men  by  disease  or  casualties,  and  the  remnant  of 
the  great  fleet,  which  was  to  have  restored  the  for- 
tunes of  France  in  America,  returned  home  under 
the  command  of  M.  de  la  Jonquiere  without  having 
even  attempted  to  capture  the  half-ruined  fort  at 
Annapolis.  Another  fleet  in  1747,  und^*-  M.  de  St. 
George  and  the  Marquis  de  la  Jonquiere,  the  latter 
of  whom  became  subsequently  Governor  of  Canada, 
never  reached  its  destination,  but  was  defeated  off 
Cape  Finisterre  by  a  more  powerful  fleet  under  Ad- 
mirals Anson  and  Warren. 

The  Canadian  Government,  of  which  the  Marquis 
de  Beauharnois  was  then  the  head,  had  confidently 
expected  to  regain  Acadia,  when  they  heard  of  the 
arrival  of  the  Duke  d'Anville's  fleet,  and  immedi- 
ately sent  M.  de  Ramesay  to  excite  the  Acadians, 
now  veiy  numerous — probably  ten  thousand  alto- 
gether— to  rise  in  arms  against  the  few  Englishmen 
at  Port  Royal.  He  had  with  him  a  considerable 
force  of  Indians  and  Canadians,  among  the  latter 


ACADIA   Ai\'D  ILE   h'OYALE,  2\g 

such  distin<^uishcd  men  as  Hcaujcu,  Saint-Ours, 
Boishcbcrt,  I.anaudicre,  but  the  news  of  the  disas- 
ters that  had  crippled  the  fleet,  forced  him  to  give 
up  his  plan  of  attacking;  Annapolis,  and  to  withdraw 
to  the  isthmus  of  Chignecto,  where  he  built  a  small 
fort  at  Baie  Verte.  In  the  following  year,  1747,  he 
succeeded  in  surprising  and  capturing  Colonel  Arthur 
Noble  and  a  considerable  force  of  New  England 
troops  who  had  taken  possession  of  the  houses  of 
the  Acadian  French  at  Grand  Pre,  one  of  the  most 
fertile  and  beautiful  districts  of  the  province,  after- 
wards still  more  famous  in  poetry  and  history.  This 
exploit,  however,  did  not  materially  change  the 
aspect  of  things  in  Acadia,  where  the  French 
Acadians  had  entirely  disappointed  the  hopes  of 
Ramesay  and  his  government.  Had  they  been  as 
active  or  enterprising  as  their  compatriots  on  the 
banks  of  the  St.  Lawrence,  they  might  easily,  at 
that  time,  have  won  back  Acadia  for  France.  As  it 
was,  however,  Ramesay  was  not  able  to  gain  a  firm 
foothold  beyond  the  isthmus.  Even  the  success  he 
won  was  neutralised  by  the  activity  of  Governor 
Shirley,  who  w^as  ever  alive  to  the  importance  of 
Nova  Scotia,  and  immediately  sent  another  force  to 
occupy  the  meadows  of  Grand  Pre. 

In  1748  English  diplomacy,  careless  of  colonial 
interests,  restored  the  island  of  Cape  Breton  to 
France  by  the  Treaty  of  Aix-la-Chapelle,  in  return 
for  the  commercial  post  of  Madras,  which  had  been 
taken  by  the  French  in  the  East  Indies  where  Eng- 
land and  France  were  now  rivals  for  the  supremacy. 
It  was  the  persistency  of  the  French  to  regain  pes- 


^20 


THE   STORY  OF  CANADA. 


session  of  so  valuable  a  bulwark  to  their  great 
dominion  of  Canada,  that  forced  the  English  cabi- 
net to  restore  it  at  a  time  when  the  nation  was 
threatened  by  a  Catholic  pretender,  and  disheart- 
ened at  the  results  of  the  war  on  the  continent. 
Weary  of  the  struggle  and  anxious  for  a  breathing 
space,  England  deserted  Maria  Theresa  and  made 
peace  with  France. 


I 


MAP  UF   1  KENCU   FOKTS   IN   AMERICA,  I75O-OO. 


t 


XVI. 

THE     STRUGGLE     FOR    DOMINION    IN     THE    GREAT 
VALLEYS  OF   NORTH   AMERICA— PRELUDE. 


(1748-I756.) 


The  map  that  is  placed  at  the  beginning  of  this 
chapter  outlines  the  ambitious  designs  conceived  by 
French  statesmen  soon  after  the  Treaty  of  Aix-la- 
Chapelle.  We  see  the  names  of  many  posts  and 
forts  intended  to  keep  up  communications  between 
Canada  and  Louisiana,  and  ov^erawe  the  English 
colonies  then  confined  to  a  relatively  narrow  strip  of 
territory  on  the  Atlantic  coast.  Conscious  of  the 
mistake  that  they  had  made  in  giving  up  Acadia, 
the  French  now  claimed  that  its  '*  ancient  limits  " 
did  not  extend  beyond  the  isthmus  of  Chignecto — 
in  other  words,  included  only  Nova  Scotia.  Ac- 
cordingly they  proceeded  to  construct  the  forts  of 
Gaspereau  and  Beausejour  on  that  neck  of  land,  and 
also  one  on  the  St.  John  River,  so  that  they  might 
control  the  land  and  sea  approaches  to  Cape  Breton 
from  the  St.  Lawrence  where  Quebec,  enthroned  on 
her  picturesque  heights,  and  Montreal  at  the  conflu- 

221 


222  THE   STONY  OT  CAXADA. 

ence  of  the  Ottawa  and  the  St.  Lawrence,  held  the 
keys  to  Canada.  The  approaches  by  the  way  of 
Lake  Champlain  and  the  RicheHeu  were  defended 
by  the  fort  of  St.  John  near  the  northern  extremity 
of  the  lake,  and  by  the  more  formidable  works 
known  as  Fort  Frederick  or  Crown  Point — to  give 
the  better  known  English  name — on  a  peninsula  at 
the  narrows  towards  the  south.  The  latter  was  the 
most  advanced  post  of  the  French  until  they  built 
Fort  Ticonderoga  or  Carillon  on  a  high,  rocky  prom- 
ontory at  the  head  of  Lake  Sacrement,  afterwards 
called  Lake  George  by  General  Johnson — a  sheet  of 
water  always  famed  for  its  picturesque  charms.  At 
the  foot  of  this  lake,  associated  with  .  o  many  mem- 
orable episodes  in  American  history,  General  John- 
son, a  clever,  ambitious  Irishman,  a  nephew  of  Sir 
Peter  Warren,  in  1755,  erected  Fort  William  Henry, 
about  fourteen  miles  from  Fort  Edward  or  Lyman, 
at  the  great  carrying  place  on  the  upper  waters  of 
the  Hudson.  Returning  to  the  St.  Lawrence  and 
the  lakes,  we  find  Fort  F'rontenac  or  Cataraqui  at 
the  eastern  end  of  Lake  Ontario,  where  the  old  city 
of  Kingston  now  stands.  W^ithin  the  limits  of  the 
present  city  of  Toronto,  La  Galissonniere  built  F'ort 
Rouille  as  an  attempt  to  control  the  trade  of  the 
Indians  of  the  North,  who  were  finding  their  w^ay  to 
the  English  fort  at  Choueguen  (Oswego),  which  had 
been  commenced  with  the  consent  of  the  Iroquois 
by  Governor  Burnet  of  New  York  and  was  now  a 
menace  to  the  French  dominion  of  Lake  Ontario. 
At  the  other  extremity  of  this  lake  was  Fort  Niagara, 
the  key  to  the  West. 


THE   STKUCULE  FOR   DOMINION,  223 

At  Detroit,  Mackinac,  and  Sauit  Stc.  Marie  the 
French  continued  to  hold  possession  of  the  Great 
Lakes  and  the  country  to  the  west  and  south.  Their 
communications,  then,  between  the  West  and  Que- 
bec were  estabUshed,  but  between  the  great  valleys 
of  the  St.  Lawrence  and  the  Mississippi,  over  which 
they  claimed  exclusive  rights,  there  was  another 
valley  which  became  of  importance  in  the  execution 
of  their  scheme  of  continental  dominion.  In  the 
years  succeeding  the  treaty  of  Aix-la-Chapelle  the 
English  colonists  awakened  to  the  importance  of  the 
valley  of  the  Ohio,  and  adventurous  frontiersmen 
of  Virginia  and  Pennsylvania  were  already  forcing 
their  wav  into  its  wilderness,  when  France's  ambi- 
tion  barred  the  way  to  their  further  progress.  That 
astute  Canadian,  Governor  La  Galissonniere,  in  1749, 
recognised  the  importance  of  the  Ohio  in  relation  to 
the  Illinois  and  Mississippi,  and  sent  Celoron,  a  cap- 
tain in  the  French  service,  to  claim  possession  of  the 
valley  of  the  former  river  and  its  tributaries.  This 
officer  made  a  long  and  enterprising  journey,  in  the 
course  of  which  he  affixed  at  different  points  the 
arms  of  France  to  trees,  and  buried  leaden  plates 
bearing  the  inscription,  that  they  were  memorials  of 
the  "  renewal  of  the  possession  of  the  Ohio  and  all 
its  affluents  "  originally  established  by  arms  and 
treaties,  particularly  those  of  Ryswick,  Utrecht,  and 
Aix-la-Chapelle.  Under  the  instructions  of  Gover- 
nor Duquesne,  who  possessed  all  the  sagacity  of  La 
Galissonniere,  forts  were  established  at  Presqu'ile 
(Erie)  and  on  French  Creek,  a  tributary  of  the  Alle- 
ghany.    Virginians  saw  with  dismay  the  entrance 


2^4  ^^^^''    ^'i^^Ky   OF   C.WAlKA. 

of  the  French  into  a  rc<^ion  on  which  they  were  now 
casting  a  longing  eye.  Their  government  had  se- 
cured from  the  Irotjuois  a  doubtful  deed  which  gave 
them,  as  they  urged,  a  title  to  the  Great  West,  and 
a  company  was  ev^en  formed  to  occupy  the  Ohio. 
In  1754  the  English  commenced  the  construction 
of  a  fort  at  the  forks  of  the  Ohio,  but  it  was  easily 
captured  by  Contrec(X'ur,  who  completed  and  re- 
named it  in  honour  of  the  Governor  of  Canada, 
Duc^uesne.  Washington,  who  now  first  appears  in 
American  history,  was  defeated  by  Chevalier  dc  V'il- 
hers  at  Fort  Necessity,  a  mere  intrenchment  at  Great 
Meadows,  and  the  French  held  entire  possession  of 
the  Ohio  valley,  where  no  English  trader  or  pioneer 
dared  show  himself.  \\y  1755  the  French  dominion 
was  complete  from  the  Ohio  to  the  Illinois,  and  from 
the  Great  Lakes  to  the  Gulf  of  Mexico,  so  far  as  a 
slender  line  of  communication  by  means  of  widely 
separated  posts  and  settlements  could  make  it  s(j. 
On  the  St.  Joseph,  the  Maumee,  the  Wabash,  and 
the  Illinois,  there  were  small  forts.  Fort  Chartres 
in  the  Illinois  country  was  the  jnly  post  of  any 
thorough  construction.  At  Cahokia,  opposite  the 
modern  city  of  St.  Louis,  and  at  Kaskaskia,  at  the 
junction  of  the  river  of  that  name  with  the  Missis- 
sippi, there  were  small  and  relatively  prosperous 
French  villages.  In  Louisiana  the  French  had  the 
towns  of  Mobile,  Biloxi,  New  Orleans,  and  a  few 
other  settlements,  where  the  African  blacks  far  out- 
numbered the  whites.  That  colony  had  had  many 
difficulties  to  surmount  before  it  could  be  considered 
established.     Wars  with  the  Natchez  and  Chicka- 


THE   STRUGGLE  FOR  DOMINION,  22$ 

saws  had  been  constant.  Crozat's  experiment  had 
been  followed  by  the  establishment  of  the  Missis- 
sippi or  Western  Company,  which  was  to  develop 
gold  mines,  that  never  existed  except  in  the  imagi- 
nations of  its  reckless  promoter,  John  Law,  a  Scotch- 
man. When  the  Mississippi  bubble  burst,  and  so 
many  thousands  were  ruined  in  France,  Louisiana 
still  continued  under  the  control  of  the  company, 
which  was  eventually  obliged  to  give  up  its  charter 
after  heavy  expenditures  which  had  produced  very 
small  results,  and  the  colony  became  a  royal  prov- 
ince. With  its  chequered  future  must  be  always 
associated  the  name  of  the  Canadian  Bienville,  who 
was  for  some  years  its  governor  and  justly  earned 
the  title  of  **  Father  of  Louisiana."  Insignificant 
as  was  its  progress,  France  prized  its  possession, 
and  had  she  been  alive  to  her  opportunities  she 
might  have  colonised  it  with  Huguenots  and  made 
it  a  power  in  the  conflict  between  herself  and  Eng- 
land in  America. 

France,  busy  with  her  ambitious  designs  in  Eu- 
rope, gave  but  a  meagre  and  too  often  half-hearted 
support  to  the  men  who  had  dreams  of  founding  a 
mighty  empire  in  America.  When  France  and  Eng- 
land met  for  the  great  struggle  on  that  continent, 
the  thirteen  colonies  had  reached  a  population  of 
nearly  a  million  and  a  quarter  of  souls,  exclusive  of 
the  negroes  in  the  South,  while  the  total  number  of 
the  people  in  Canada  and  Louisiana  did  not  exceed 
eighty  thousand.  In  wealth  and  comfort  there  was 
the  same  disproportion  between  the  French  and 
English  colonies.     In  fact  at  the  time  of  the  last 

»5 


226  ///A    SJ'OA'Y  i>/''  CAXADA, 

war,  Canadian  commerce  was  entirely  paralysed, 
farms  nej^lected,  and  the  towns  barely  able  to  li\e. 
In  1757  food  was  so  scarce  m  (Juebec  and  Montreal 
that  the  soldiers  and  people  had  to  use  horse  tlesh. 
The  combined  forces  of  Canadian  militia  and  regular 
troops  were  always  much  inferior  in  number  to  the 
British  and  colonial  armies  when  united  for  the 
invasion  <jf  Canada,  with  the  support  (jf  a  powerful 
fleet;  but  the  threat  streni;th  of  the  French  colony 
lay  in  the  natural  barriers  between  the  English  col- 
onies and  the  keys  to  New  Trance,  Quebec,  and 
Montreal,  and  in  the  skill  with  which  the  approaches 
by  way  of  Lake  Champlaiii  had  been  defended  by 
forts  at  every  important  point.  If  the  French  force 
was  insignificant  in  number,  it  was,  as  a  rule,  skil- 
fully managed,  and  in  the  early  part  of  the  stru«^<^le 
the  English  had  no  commander  to  compare  with 
Montcalm  for  military  genius.  In  some  respects 
the  French  Canadians  were  more  manageable  in  war 
than  the  English  colonists.  No  legislative  bodies 
existed  in  Canada  to  interfere  with  and  thwart  the 
plans  and  orders  of  military  commanders,  but  the 
whole  Canadian  people  acted  as  a  unit  to  be  moved 
and  directed  at  the  will  of  the  King's  officers. 
The  Indian  tribes  from  Acadia  to  the  Mississippi, 
the  Ohio,  and  the  Illinois,  were,  with  the  exception 
of  the  F"'ive  Nations,  always  friendly  to  the  French 
since  the  days  of  Champlain — the  warm  allies  of  a 
people  who  fraternised  naturally  with  them ;  and  it 
would  have  been  an  unhappy  day  for  the  English 
colonists  had  eighty  or  a  hundred  thousand  Cana- 
dians been  able  to  arm  and,  under  the  skilful  gen- 


THE   STNUGCLIi  I- OK  DOM  I  MO  N,  227 

cralship  of  Montcalm,  swoop  down  with  their  savage 
allies  on  the  English  colonial  settlements.  Hut  the 
French  of  Canada  were  never  able,  as  a  rule,  to  do 
more  than  harass  by  sudden  raids  and  skirmishes — 
by  a  system  of  petite  guerre,  or  petty  warl'are — the 
En^dish  of  America,  and  at  no  time  in  colonial  his- 
tory was  the  capture  of  Boston  or  of  New  York 
actually  attempted  by  a  land  force  from  Canada, 
though  it  was  su<;gested  more  than  once.  At  the 
outbreak  of  the  war  the  Mohawks  were  the  only 
Indian  tribe  on  whom  the  English  could  place  much 
dependence,  and  that  was  largely  owing  to  the  energy 
and  discretion  o^  Sir  William  Johnson,  who  had  long 
lived  in  their  country  and  gained  not  only  their  con- 
fidence but  even  their  affection.  The  tribes  in  the 
Ohio  valley  had  been  won  by  the  success  of  the 
French  in  driving  out  the  Virginians,  while  in  the 
further  west  the  Foxes  and  other  communities  who 
had  been  unfriendly  to  the  French  had  been  beaten 
into  submission — the  Foxes  in  fact  almost  destroyed 
— by  the  raids  of  the  French  and  their  Indian  allies. 
The  great  current  of  active  thought  and  enterprise 
which  develops  a  nation  was  always  with  the  English 
colonies,  and  though  large  schemes  of  ambition  stim- 
ulated the  energies  of  the  bold  and  adventurous 
men  to  whom  the  destinies  of  France  were  entrusted 
from  the  days  of  La  Salle  to  those  of  Montcalm, 
their  ability  to  found  a  new  empire  in  America 
under  the  lilies  of  France  was  ever  hindered  by  the 
slow  development  of  the  French  settlements,  by  the 
incapacity  of  the  King  and  his  ministers  in  France  to 
grasp  the  importance  of  the  situation  on  this  conti' 


228  THE   STOKV  OF  CANADA. 

ncnt,  and  by  their  refusal  to  carry  out  the  projects 
of  men  like  La  Galissonniere,  who  at  once  recognised 
the  consequences  of  such  neglect  and  indifference, 
but  found  no  one  ready  to  favour  his  scheme  of  es- 
tablishing  large  settlements  of  French  peasantry  in 
Canada  and  Louisiana.  France,  we  see  now,  had 
her  great  opportunity  in  America,  and  1  )st  it  forever 

at  Quebec  in  I7S9- 

Before  we  proceed  to  the  record  of  the  events 
which  led  to  the  conquest  of  Canada,  it  is  necessary 
that  we  should  brietiy  review  the  history  of  the 
period  which  elapsed  between  the  Treaty  of  Aix-la- 
Chapelle  and  the  commencement  of  the  Seven  Years' 
War.  When  English  statesmen  were  inform  d  of 
the  mistake  they  had  mndc  in  restoring  Cape  Kreton 
to  France  with  such  reckless  haste,  they  begai;  ^"^ 
reflect  on  the  best  means  of  retrieving  i^  as  \:  -; 
possible  ;  and  at  the  suggestion  of  Shirley  ana  ot  ^\ 
colonists  they  set  to  work  to  bring  an  En.^lish  po^ 
ulation  into  Nova  Scotia,  and  to  make  it  a  source  of 
strength  instead  of  weakness  to  the  New  England 
communities.  In  1749,  the  year  of  the  formal  sur- 
render of  Louisbourg,  the  city  of  Halifax  was 
founded  on  the  west  side  of  the  admirable  harbour, 
long  known  in  Acadian  history  as  Chebouctou. 
Here,  under  the  direction  of  Governor  Cornwallis,  a 
man  of  great  ability,  a  town  slowly  grew  up  at  the 
foot  and  on  the  slopes  of  the  hill  which  \/as  in  later 
times  crowned  by  a  noble  citadel,  above  which  has 
always  floated  the  flag  of  Great  Britain.  Then  fol- 
lowed the  erection  of  a  fort  at  Chignecto,  known  as 
Fort  Lawrence  in  honour  of  the  English  ofificer  who 


THE   STRUGGLE  FOR  DOM IX ION,  22g 

built  it — afterwards  governor  of  Nova  Scotia — and 
intended  to  be  a  protection  to  the  province,  con- 
stantly threatened  by  the  French  and  Indians,  who 
were  always  numerous  at  the  h'rench  posts  and  set- 
tlements on  the  isthmus.  The  French  constructed 
on  the  northern  ])ank  of  the  Missiquash  a  fort  of  five 
bastions  known  as  Ikausejour,  and  a  smaller  one  at 
Bay  Verte,  with  the  object,  as  previously  stated,  of 
keepin<^  up  communication  with  Louisbour<^.  which 
they  were  stren^theninff  in  some  measure.  At  Fort 
Beausejour  the  treacherous  priest  Le  Loutre  contin- 
ued to  pursue  his  insidious  desi<^ns  of  creating  dissat- 
isfaction amonir  the  T'rench  Acadians  and  pressing 
on  them  the  necessity  of  driving  the  T^n^lish  from 
the  former  possessions  of  TVance. 

Though  war  was  not  formally  prtjclaimed  between 
France  and  Kn<rland  until  many  months  later,  the 
year  1755  was  distin<ruished  in  America  by  conflicts 
between  the  English  and  French — a  prelude  to  the 
great  struggle  that  was  only  to  end  in  the  fall  of 
New  France.  The  French  frigates  A  hide  and  Lys 
were  captured  on  the  coast  of  Newfoundland  by  ves- 
sels of  a  fleet  under  Admiral  Boscawen,  who  had 
been  sent  by  the  English  Government  to  intercept  a 
French  fleet  which  had  left  France  under  Admiral 
de  la  Mothe,  having  on  board  troops  under  Baron 
Dieskau  and  the  Marquis  de  Vaudreuil,  the  succes- 
sor of  Duquesne  in  the  government  of  Canada. 

In  Acadia,  in  the  valley  of  the  Ohio,  and  at  Lake 
George,  the  opposing  forces  of  England  and  France 
also  met  in  conflict.  In  the  spring  an  English  force 
of  regular  and  colonial  troops,   chiefly  the  latter, 


230  THE   SrORY  OF  CANADA. 

under  the  command  of  Colonel  Monckton,  who  has 
given  his  name  to  a  prosperous  city  on  the  isthmus 
of  Chignecto,  and  of  Colonels  Winslow  and  Scott, 
captured  the  two  French  forts  and  took  a  good 
many  prisoners,  among  whom  were  a  considerable 
number  of  French  Acadians,  forced  by  the  French 
to  assist  in  the  defence  of  Beausejour.  Le  Loutre 
succeeded  during  the  confusion  on  the  surrender  of 
the  fort,  in  evading  capture,  but  only  to  find  himself 
eventually  taken  prisoner  by  an  English  ship  while 
on  his  way  to  France,  and  sent  to  the  island  of 
Jersey,  where  he  was  kept  in  confinement  until  the 
end  of  the  war,  and  from  that  time  disappears  from. 
American  history. 

In  the  same  year  General  Braddock,  an  arrogant 
though  experienced  soldier,  was  sent  in  command  of 
a  large  force  of  regular  and  colonial  troops  into  the 
valley  of  the  Ohio  to  attack  Fort  Duquesne  and 
drive  the  French  from  that  region,  but  chiefly 
through  his  want  of  caution  and  his  ignorance  of 
Indian  methods  of  warfare  in  the  American  wilder- 
ness, he  was  surprised  on  the  Monongahela  by  a  small 
force  of  Indians  and  French  under  the  Canadian 
Beaujeu,  who  were  concealed  in  ravines,  from  which 
they  were  able  in  perfect  security  to  prevent  the 
advance  of  the  English,  and  literally  riddle  them 
with  bullets  until  they  fled  in  dismay  and  confusion, 
leaving  behind  them  a  great  store  of  munitions  and 
provisions  besides  a  large  sum  of  money  in  specie. 
Braddock  died  from  the  wounds  he  received,  and 
the  remnant  of  his  beaten  regiments  retired  precipi- 
tately beyond  the  AUeghanies.     This  unhappy  dis- 


The   STkVGGLE  ?0R  DOMINION.  23 1 

aster  was  followed  by  a  succession  of  Indian  raids 
along  hundreds  of  miles  of  frontier,  and  the  petite 
guerre  of  the  Abenakis  and  French  in  Acadia  and 
New  Flngland,  with  all  its  horrors,  was  repeated  by 
the  Indians  of  the  West.  The  southern  colonies 
were  paralysed  for  the  moment,  and  the  authorities 
of  Pennsylvania  gave  evidences  of  indifference,  if 
not  of  cowardice,  that  are  discreditable  features  of 
its  early  history. 

General  Johnson,  of  the  Mohawk  country,  at  the 
head  of  a  large  colonial  force,  defeated  Baron  Dies- 
kau  at  the  foot  of  Lake  George,  which  then  received 
its  present  name  in  honour  of  the  King  of  England, 
and  the  French  general  himself  was  taken  prisoner. 
It  was  for  his  services  on  this  occasion  that  Johnson 
was  made  a  baronet,  though  he  had  not  succeeded 
in  the  original  object  of  his  expedition,  the  capture 
of  Crown  Point.  General  Shirley,  however,  was  not 
so  fortunate  as  Johnson,  for  he  abandoned  the 
project  of  attacking  Fort  Niagara  when  he  heard 
that  it  had  received  reinforcements. 

The  most  memorable  event  of  this  time,  which 
has  been  the  subject  of  warm  controversy  between 
French  and  English  historians  and  the  theme  of  a 
most  affecting  poem,  was  the  expulsion  of  the  Aca- 
dian French  from  Nova  Scotia.  When  Halifax  was 
founded  it  was  decided,  as  a  matter  of  necessity,  to 
bring  the  Acadians  more  entirely  under  the  control 
of  the  English  authorities.  They  had  probably  in- 
creased since  the  Treaty  of  Utrecht  to  at  least  twelve 
thousand  souls,  living  for  the  most  part  in  the  An- 
napolis valley,  by  the  Gaspereaux  and  Avon  rivers, 


2^2  THE   srORV  OF  CANADA, 

at  Grand  Pr6,  at  Mines,  and  at  Chignecto.  When 
they  were  asked  to  take  the  oath  of  allegiance  by 
Governor  Lawrence,  they  refused  to  do  so  unless  it 
was  qualified  by  the  condition  that  they  should  not 
be  obliged  at  any  time  to  take  up  arms.  Many 
years  before  a  considerable  number,  if  not  the  ma- 
jority, of  the  sam*^  people  had  taken  this  qualified 
oath,  although  it  is  also  claimed  that  no  one  had 
legal  authority  to  make  such  a  condition  with  them. 
Under  the  treaty  of  1713  the  Acadian  French  had  a 
year  to  choose  between  leaving  the  country  or  giving 
their  submission  to  the  British  Government  and  be- 
coming its  subjects.  It  was  natural  that  they  should 
have  hesitated  to  leave  the  humble  though  comfort- 
able homes  which  their  own  industry  had  made  on 
the  most  fertile  lands  of  Nova  Scotia,  but  it  is  also 
quite  certain  that  every  obstacle  was  thrown  in  the 
way  of  their  removal  by  the  English  governors. 
Had  the  British  authorities  adopted  from  the  very 
commencement  a  firm  and  decided  policy  towards 
them,  they  might  have  given  an  ireserved  alle- 
giance to  the  British  Crown  and  eventually  be- 
come peaceable  and  contented  inhabitants.  As  it 
was,  the  British  Government  systematically  neg- 
lected the  country,  and  left  the  little  garrison  at 
Annapolis  for  many  years  practically  at  the  mercy 
of  the  Acadians,  who  could  have  often  half  starved 
them,  and  even  captured  the  only  English  post  of 
the  least  importance  in  the  province,  had  they  been 
led  at  any  time  by  a  man  of  courage  and  determina- 
tion. It  was  only  the  watchfulness  of  the  govern- 
ment of  Massachusetts,  who  fully  recognised   the 


THE   STRUGGLE   FOR   DOMINION.  233 

importance  of  Nova  Scotia  in  relation  to  New  Eng- 
land, that  retained  the  province  in  English  hands 
during  the  time  when  English  statesmen  like  New- 
castle were  even  ignorant  of  the  existence  or  situa- 
tion of  Annapolis.  If  French  emissaries  were  often 
able  to  make  these  credulous  and  ignorant  people 
believe  that  France  would  soon  regain  her  dominion 
in  Acadia,  it  was  largely  owing  to  the  fact  that  the 
English  showed  such  weakness  in  all  their  relations 
with  the  Acadians,  and  made  no  earnest  or  sus- 
tained effort  to  assert  their  sovereignty.  At  last 
when  England  decided  to  settle  and  strengthen 
Nova  Scotia,  a  feeling  of  uneasiness  was  naturally 
created  by  the  presence  of  a  large  and  increasing 
population  who  were  naturally  in  sympathy  with 
the  French,  and  had  assum.ed  an  attitude  quite 
irreconcilable  with  the  security  of  Plnglish  interests 
on  the  Atlantic  coast  of  eastern  America.  It  must 
be  admitted  that  the  position  of  the  Acadians  was 
one  deserving  of  sympathy,  tossed  about  as  they 
were  for  many  years  between  French  and  English. 
They  w^ere  considered  by  the  French  of  Canada  and 
Cape  Breton  as  mere  tools  to  carry  out  the  designs 
of  French  ambition.  England,  however,  had  at 
some  time  or  other  to  assert  her  sovereignty  in 
Nova  Scotia,  and  to  assure  its  security,  seemingly 
threatened  by  the  presence  of  people  who  would 
not  formally  declare  themselves  British  subjects. 
The  position  of  Nova  Scotia  between  Cape  Breton 
and  Canada  gave  reason  for  constant  alarm,  and 
when  Halifax  was  founded  some  decisive  step  was 
felt  to  be  necessary  by  Cornwallis  and  his  successors. 


234  '^ffl'    ^TOkV  ()/'   CA^VADA. 

No  doubt  tlic  fec.liiij^  that  had  bi-cn  created  against 
the  Ac:a(iiaiis,  l)y  tlicir  refusal  to  take  an  unconth- 
tioiial  oath  of  allej^nance  to  (ireat  Britain — tiic  only 
oath  that  could  !)e  possibly  offered  to  them  b)'  a 
self-respectin;^  and  strong  j^overninent  —was  intensi- 
fied by  the  notorious  fact  that  a  number  of  them 
had  been  actually  ca))tured  at  l^Ort  i^eausejour  with 
arms  in  their  hands,  thoui^li  in  this  case  they  ap- 
pear to  have  been  really  the  mere  tools  of  Le 
I, rut  re  and  I'rench  ennssaries  who  ^j^rossly  misled 
th'-m.  The  people  of  New  Mn^land  were  much 
prejudiced  a<^ainst  them  and  asserteil  that  they 
could  never  enjoy  any  security  while  the  Acadians 
continued  tf)  maintain  their  attitude  o{  neutral- 
ity. 1  hey  ha<l  always  supplied  Louisbour^^  witli 
provisions  and  helped  to  f)uild  the  h'rench  forts 
on  the  isthmus,  and  it  was  diffictdt  for  Lawrence 
and  his  officers  to  obtain  any  assistance  from  them 
in  the  same  way.  When  the  Indians  harassed  the 
En<rlish  settlers  in  Nova  Scotia,  the  j^overnment  of 
that  province  recalled  tin;  raids  of  the  Abenakis  and 
French  Canadians,  and  believed  with  sf)me  reason 
there  was  to  be  the  same  cr)ndition  of  things  in  the 
peninsula.  The  war  between  the  I  rench  .md  Vav^- 
lish  had  never  really  ceased  in  America,  and  it  was 
well  known  that  the  liollow  truce  in  I^urope  we>uld 
be  broken  at  atiy  moment;  and  in  the  presence  of 
the  ^reat  dan<^'er  that  threatened  the  Kn<^dish  colo- 
nies, they  had  some  ground  for  fearing  the  presence 
of  a  large  body  of  people  who  claimed  to  be  neu- 
trals in  a  country  which  was  England's  by  conquest 
and  treaty,  and  where  they  could  and  did  enjoy  an 


TIIR   STKVGdLE  I'OR   DOAf/N/ON.  235 

amount  of  political  and  rclij^ious  liberty  which  no 
I'rotcstant  enjoyed  in  Catholic  Murope.  Then  came 
the  defeat  of  Hraddock  in  the  Ohio  country,  and  the 
knowledge  that  hVance  was  preparinj^  for  a  deter- 
mined effort  to  strengthen  and  even  increase  her 
dominions  in  America. 

It  was  under  these  circumstances  that  (Governor 
Lawrence  of  Nova  Scotia — a  determined  and  harsh 
military  man — no  doubt  at  the  instillation  of  Shirley 
and  the  authorities  of  New  lui^land,  determined  to 
secure  the  peace  and  safety  of  tlie  province  by  the 
most  cruel  of  all  possible*  measures,  the  expulsion  of 
the  whole  bodv  of  I'rench  Acadians.  It  must  be 
adnn'tted,  however,  that  all  the  circumstances,  when 
reviewed  in  these  later  times,  do  not  seem  sufficient 
to  justify  the  stern  action  of  the  men  who  took  the 
leadin;^  part  in  this  sad  tragedy.  The  responsibility 
must  mainly  rest  on  Governcjr  Lawrence,  and  not 
on  the  iini)erial  government,  who  never  formally 
authorised  the  expatriation.  l^e  that  as  it  may, 
the  Acadians  were  driven  fnun  their  settlements, 
and  the  noble  (jualities  of  Lawrence,  Monckton, 
and  VVinsiow,  who  carried  out  the  measures  of 
expulsion,  will  be  always  obscured  in  the  minds 
of  that  gp.Mt  majority  of  peo[)le  who  think  only 
of  the  deed  and  its  consequences,  and  are  influ- 
enced by  the  dictates  of  the  heart.  It  is  a  matter 
for  deep  regret  that  the  men  who  re|)resented  Eng- 
land in  those  days  had  not  run  a  risk  on  the  side 
of  humanity,  rather  than  have  driven  thousands 
of  men,  women,  and  children  from  their  pleasant 
homes  by  the  sides  of  the  beautiful  bays  and  rivers 


236 


THE  STORY  OF  CANADA, 


of  Nova  Scotia,  and  scattered  them  far  and  wide 
among  the  EngHsh  colonies,  where  their  treatment 
was  rarely  generous.  Even  those  who  reached 
Quebec  were  coldly  received  and  were  grudgingly 
supplied  with  miserable  food.  Poetry  and  senti- 
ment have  not  exaggerated  the  sorrow  and  misery 
of  these  hapless  exiles,  so  ill-fitted  to  go  out  into 
the  bitter  world  of  hardship  and  destitution. 


M 

'^m 

^ 

M<j^ 

tt 

M 

^M 

^ 

q^^n 

M 

1^ 

^^^ 

S^ 

aSS!^ 

^a 

XVII. 

THE    stru(;(;le    for   dominion   in   the    oreat 

VALLEYS  OF  NCJRTH  AMERICA:  ENGLISH  RE- 
VERSES AND  FRENCH  VICTORIES— FALL  OF 
LOUISBOURG  AND   FORT   DUQUESNE. 


(1756-1758.) 


In  1756  England  was  fully  engaged  in  that  famous 
war  with  France  which  was  to  end  in  driving  her 
hereditary  riv^al  from  the  eastern  ar.d  western  hemi- 
spheres, and  in  the  establishment  of  the  German 
Empire  by  the  military  genius  of  Frederick  the  Great. 
For  a  while,  however,  the  conflict  in  America  was 
chiefly  remarkable  for  the  incapacity  of  English 
commanders  on  land  and  sea.  Earl  Loudoun,  the 
sluggish  commander-in-chief,  of  whom  it  was  said, 
"  he  is  like  St.  George  on  the  signs;  always  on 
horseback,  but  never  rides  on,"  arranged  a  campaign 
against  the  French  on  Lake  Champlain  and  against 
Louisbourg  which  ended  only  in  disaster  and  hu- 
miliation for  England.  The  forts  at  Oswego,  always 
regarded  as  a  menace  by  the  French  who  occupied 

237 


238  77//:    SJVA'V   01-    CAXADA. 

r'ort  J'rontciiac  on  the  opposite  side  of  Lake  Onta- 
rio, were  successfully  attacked  and  destroyed  by 
Montcalm/''  who  was  sent  to  Canada  in  1756  to 
make  a  supreme  effort  for  1 'ranee.  The  cner^^etic 
PVench  general  then  prt)ceeded  a  \'ear  later  to  storm 
I'^ort  William  Henr\-,  and  largely  owin^  to  the  in- 
ca})acity  or  timidity  of  General  Webb,  who  could 
have  marched  to  the  assistance  of  the  besieged  from 
Fort  Edward,  the  brave  Scotcli  officer,  Lieutenant- 
Colonel  Monro,  then  in  command  of  this  important 
defence  of  the  northeastern  frontier,  was  obli<;ed  to 
surrender.  After  the  ca])itulation  of  this  fort  a  lari^e 
number  of  helpless  men,  women,  and  children  w  ere 
barbarously  murdered  by  the  body  of  hidians  that 
accompanied  the  French — one  of  the  saddest  epi- 
sodes in  American  history,  which  must  always  dim 
the  lustre  of  Montcalm's  victory,  though  it  is  now 
generally  admitted  that  the  French  general  himself 
was  not  responsible  for  the  treachery  of  his  Indian 
allies,  but  used  his  most  earnest  efforts — even  at  the 
risk  of  his  own  life — to  save  the  English  when  the 
sava<{es  were  mad  with  lust  for  the  blood  of  their 
enemies. 

At  sea  the  results  were  equally  discouraging  [or 
the  English.  Fifteen  ships-of-the-line  and  three 
frigates,  under  the  orders  of  Admiral  Holbourne,  and 
twelve  thousand  troops  under  the  command  o(  Earl 
Loudoun  himself,  assembled  in  the  harbour  of  Hali- 
fax in  the  July  of  1/57;  t)ut,  owing  to  the  absence 

*  His  full  name  was  Louis-Joseph,  Marquis  de  Montcalm-Gozon  de 
Saint-Veran,  whose  family  seat  was  Candiac,  near  Nism^s.  in  the 
south  of  France, 


cfC^T^O^ 


X.Il.   29. 


239 


240  THE   STORY  OF  CANADA. 

of  energy  and  celerity  of  movement  from  the  very 
day  the  project  was  decided  upon  in  Rn^hmd  until 
after  the  arrival  of  the  fleet  in  America,  the  French 
were  able  to  get  reinforcements  of  ships  and  men 
into  Louisbour<;,  and  the  English  admiral  and 
general  came  to  the  resolve — so  strange  for  English- 
men in  time  of  war — to  run  no  risk  in  attacking  the 
fortress.  Loudoun  returned  to  New  York,  but  too 
late  to  retrieve  the  injury  he  had  done  to  the  north- 
ern colonies  by  withdrawing  so  large  a  force  from 
the  frontier  at  a  critical  period,  when  Montcalm  was 
marching  on  Fort  William  Henry  with  such  unfor- 
tunate results  for  English  interests.  Holbourne  sailed 
with  his  fleet  for  Louisbourg,  and  after  a  half-hearted 
attempt  to  draw  the  F^rench  fleet,  then  safely  moored 
under  the  guns  of  the  town,  into  an  engagement, 
even  the  elements  combined  against  him,  and  when 
he  had  lost  a  number  of  his  vessels  on  the  rocky 
Cape  Breton  coast,  he  returned  to  England  to  tell 
the  story  of  liis  failure. 

It  was  at  this  critical  period,  when  England  so 
sadly  needed  a  bold  and  wise  statesman  at  the  head 
of  her  government  in  the  place  of  weak  and  incom- 
petent men  like  Newcastle,  that  the  great  Pitt,  bet- 
ter known  as  Chatham  at  a  later  day,  w^as  called  to 
office  by  the  unanimous  opinion  of  the  English 
people  outside,  perhaps,  of  a  small  selfish  clique  of 
the  aristocracy.  It  was  his  good  fortune  to  be  suc- 
cessful far  beyond  the  hopes  of  the  majority  of 
statesmen  suddenly  called  upon  to  retrieve  national 
disaster.  It  w^as  mainly  through  his  inspiration — 
through  the  confidence  with  which  he  inspired  all 


77/ A"    STRUGCl.E   I- OK    DOMIMON,  24 1 

those  who  served  the  countrv  at  this  momentous 
epoch  that  Kn*;la!ul  became  the  centre  of  a  vast 
colonial  empire  such  as  the  world  never  saw,  even  in 
the  days  when  Rome  was  mistress. 

When  Pitt  was  recalled  to  office  in  July,  1757,  it 
was  too  late  to  prevent  the  humiliation  of  Kn<;land 
through  the  incompetency  of  Holbournc,  Loudoun, 
and  Webb,  and  the  year  1757  closed  with  Montcalm 
triumphant  in  America.  Bui  while  hVance  neglected 
to  give  ade([uate  support  to  her  brave  sons  in  Can- 
ada, Kngland  rallied  to  the  support  of  l^itt,  and  the 
whole  nation  felt  a  confidence  in  the  future  which 
it  had  never  had  during  the  administration  of  his 
predecessors.  On  the  continent  of  Europe,  Pitt 
contented  himself  with  giving  the  largest  possible 
subsidies  of  money  to  his  great  ally  PVederick,  and 
by  entrusting  the  command  of  the  English  and  Han- 
overian forces  to  the  best  of  his  generals,  Eerdinand, 
Prince  of  Brunswick,  in  place  of  the  incompetent 
Duke  of  Cumberland.  The  victories  of  Rossbach, 
Leuthen,  and  Minden  were  the  answers  that  Ered- 
erick  gave  to  the  English  minister  for  the  confidence 
he  reposed  i  i  his  ability  to  cope  with  the  four  great 
Powers  then  combined  with  Saxony  to  destroy 
Prussia  and  bring  England  to  the  feet  of  France,  by 
invading  her  territory  and  marching  into  her  very 
capital.  Hanover  was  saved  by  the  memorable  vic- 
tory on  the  Weser,  and  England  was  spared  the 
humiliation  and  perils  of  an  invasion  by  the  destruc- 
tion of  a  French  fleet  by  Admiral  Hawke  in  Qui- 
beron  Bay. 

While  the  military  genius  of  Frederick  and  the 


242  THE    STORY   OF   CANADA. 

inspiring  statesmanship  of  Pitt  were  successfully 
thwarting  the  ambitious  plans  of  Fran^-c  and  her 
allies  in  Europe,  the  English  minister  had  decided 
on  a  vigorous  campaign  in  America.  With  that 
intuitive  sagacity  which  he  possessed  above  most 
men  for  recognising  ability  in  others  for  the  purpose 
in  view,  he  chose  General  Amherst,  Admiral  Bosca- 
wen,  and  Brigadier-General  Wolfe,  not  because  of 
their  aristocratic  or  political  influence,  but  because 
of  their  military  capacity,  the  want  of  which  in  Lou- 
doun and  Holbourne  had  brought  disaster  upon  the 
English  arms.  Unhappily  he  was  forced,  for  the 
time  being,  by  strong  influences  around  him  to 
retain  General  Abcrcromby  at  the  head  of  one  of 
the  expeditions  in  America,  but  he  hoped  that  the 
co-operation  of  Lord  Howe  would  keep  up  the  cour- 
age of  the  army,  and  prevent  any  blunders  on  the 
part  of  the  slow  and  obtuse  soldier  in  command. 
The  plan  of  the  campaign  which  opened  in  1758  was 
to  send  three  expeditions  simultaneously  against  the 
three  all-important  French  positions  held  by  the 
French  in  the  Ohio  valley,  on  Lake  Champlain,  and 
at  the  entrance  of  the  Gulf  of  St.  Lawrence.  Gen- 
eral Forbes,  a  resolute  Scotch  veteran,  was  to  march 
on  Fort  Duquesne,  General  Abercromby  was  to  lay 
siege  to  Crown  Point  and  Ticonderoga,  and  General 
Amherst,  with  Admiral  Boscawen,  was  to  attack  the 
fortress  of  Louisbourg,  which  was  acknowledged  as 
the  key  of  the  St.  Lawrence. 

The  English  fleet  anchored  in  Gabarus  Bay,  to 
the  southward  of  Louisbourg,  on  th  ^nd  of  June, 
1758.     It  was  composed  of  over  fift^  ^nips,  twenty- 


THE    STRUGGLE  FOR   DOM  I i\  ION,  243 

two  of  which  were  "  liners,"  and  carried  eighteen 
hundred  guns  altogether.  The  army  comprised 
between  eleven  and  twelve  thousand  men,  including 
a  small  force  of  provincial  rangers.  The  fortress, 
which  had  been  considerably  strengthened  since 
1745,  was  defended  by  over  three  thousand  regular 
troops,  and  a  small  number  of  Indians  and  inhabit- 
ants. A  fleet  of  fourteen  men-of-war,  with  a  crew 
of  nearly  three  thousand  men,  and  five  hundred  and 
sixty-two  guns,  were  in  the  harbour.  Chevalier  Dru- 
cour  vv^as  governor  of  the  island,  and  conducted  the 
defences  with  skill  and  resolution,  and  had  Admiral 
Desgouttes  been  as  brave  and  capable  as  the  former, 
Louisbourg  would  hardly  have  fallen  so  easily.  On 
the  morning  of  the  27th  July,  the  English  took  pos- 
session of  the  West  gate,  and  the  cross  of  St.  George 
was  hoisted  on  the  citadel  of  a  fortress  which  was 
destined  from  that  time  to  disappear  from  the  pages 
of  the  world's  history.  In  1763  the  fortress  was 
levelled  to  the  ground,  and  now  a  few  mounds  of 
turf  alone  represent  the  ambitions  of  France  a  cen- 
tury and  a  half  ago.  Nature  has  resumed  dominion 
over  the  site  of  the  once  famous  fortress,  and  the 
restless  ocean,  which  stretches  away  beyond  to  the 
eastward  without  a  break  to  Europe,  brings  no  mes- 
sage of  the  fleets  that  came  once,  richly  freighted,  to 
this  historic  fort.  Louisbourg  is  now  only  a  place 
of  memories — of  associations  which  connect  Cape 
Breton  with  most  glorious  episodes  of  England's 
hiscory,  with  times  when  the  genius  of  Pitt  tri- 
umphed over  France. 

After  the  taking  of  Louisbourg,  the  English  occu- 


24^ 


THE   STORY  OF  CANADA. 


pied  the  island  of  St.  John,  now  Prince  Edward, 
where  there  were  several  prosperous  settlements  at 
Port  La  Joye  (Charlottetown),  St.  Pierre,  and  other 
places  on  the  bays  of  the  low-lying  coast.  The 
population  was  composed  chiefly  of  Acadians,  who 
had  commenced  to  cross  from  Nova  Scotia  after  the 
Treaty  of  Utrecht,  and  probably  numbered  in  1758 
four  thousand  souls,  engaged  in  fishing  and  farming. 
These  people  were  able  to  supply  Louisbourg  with 
provisions,  as  no  agricultural  operations  of  import- 
ance were  carried  on  in  Cape  Breton. 


LOUISBOURG   MEDALS    OF    I758. 

Wolfe  destroyed  the  French  settlements  around 
the  bays  of  Gaspe,  Miramichi,  and  Chaleurs,  while 
Colonel  Monckton  performed  the  same  painful  duty 
in  the  valley  of  the  St.  John  River.  Acadia,  accord- 
ing to  its  **  ancient  limits,"  was  at  last  completely 
in  the  possession  of  England. 

The  news  of  the  capture  of  Louisbourg  was  re- 
ceived in  America  and  Europe  with  many  rejoicings, 
and  the  eleven  stands  of  colours  won  at  this  gateway 
of  Canada  were  deposited  in  St.   Paul's  Cathedral 


THE   STRUGGLE   FOR   DOMINIOK,  245 

amid  the  roar  of  cannon.  This  victory  came  at  an 
opportune  moment,  since  Abercromby  had  suffered 
a  humiliating  repulse  on  the  banks  of  Lake  Cham- 
plain.  With  a  splendid  force  of  regular  and  pro- 
vincial troops,  from  fourteen  to  fifteen  thousand 
altogether,  but  entirely  destitute  of  artillery, — an 
evidence  of  extraordinary  incapacity,  or  of  culpable 
negligence, — he  had  thrown  himself  upon  most  for- 
midable entrenchments  of  fallen  trees,  with  their 
sharp  ends  pointing  outwards,  that  the  French  had 
ingeniously  constructed  in  front  of  Carillon,  which 
was  still  incomplete,  and  defended  by  less  than  three 
thousand  men  under  Montcalm  and  Levis.  The 
most  unhappy  incident  of  this  disaster  was  the  death 
of  Lord  Howe,  described  by  Wolfe,  who  knew  him 
well,  "  as  the  noblest  Englishman  that  has  appeared 
in  my  time,  and  the  best  soldier  in  the  British 
army."  Abercromby  hurriedly  retired  to  the  head 
of  Lake  George,  and  was  soon  afterwards  superseded 
by  the  cautious  Amherst.  Montcalm  was  greatly 
encouraged  by  the  spirit  of  his  soldiers  throughout 
the  attack,  and  erected  a  cross  on  the  battle  ground 
with  the  following  .nscriptions  of  his  own — the  latter 
his  paraphrase  of  the  first : 

Quid  dux  ?  Quid  miles  ?  Quid  strata  ingentia  ligna  ? 
En  signum  !  en  victor  !  Deus  hie,  Deus  ipse  triumphat. 

**  Chretien  !  ce  ne  fut  point  Montcalm  et  la  prudence, 
Ces  arbres  renverses,  ces  heros,  ces  exploits, 
Qui  des  Anglais  confus  ont  brise  I'esperance, 
C'est  le  bras  de  ton  Dieu,  vainqueur  sur  cette  croix.'* 

*  Parkman  gives  the  following  paraphrase  of  the  Latin  inscription: 
"  Soldier  and  chief  and  ramparts'  strength  are  nought ; 
Behold  the  conquering  cross  !  'T  is  God  the  triumph  wrought." 


246 


THE   STORY  .OF  CANADA, 


An  important  event  of  the  year  was  the  taking  of 
Fort  Frontenac  by  Colonel  Bradstreet,  who  had  as- 
sisted in  the  first  siege  of  Louisbourg.  1  ne  capture 
of  this  fort  was  regarded  with  every  reason  by  the 
French  as  "  of  greater  injury  to  the  colony  than  the 
loss  of  a  battle."  Fort  Duquesne,  which  was  the 
key  to  the  Ohio  country,  was  abandoned  by  Lig- 
neris  on  the  approach  of  Brigadier  Forbes,  a  very 
capable  Scotch  of^cer,  but  not  until  the  French  had 
beaten  with  considerable  loss  an  advance  of  the  main 
forces  commanded  by  Major  Grant.  Ligneris  with- 
drew his  troops  to  Fort  Machault  (Venango),  where 
he  remained  until  the  following  year.  Fort  Du- 
quesne was  renamed  in  honour  of  Pitt,  and  a  great 
manufacturing  city  has  grown  up  on  its  site  in  the 
beautiful  valley  which,  in  1758,  passed  away  forever 
from  the  French  who  had  only  held  possession  of  it 
for  six  short  years. 


XVIII. 

THE  STRUGGLE  FOR  DOMINION  IN  THE  VALLEY  OF 

THE   ST.    LAWRENCE — CANADA   IS   WON   BY 

WOLFE  ON  THE  PLAINS  OF  ABRAHAM. 

(1759-1763.) 

When  the  campaign  opened  in  1759  the  French 
had  probably  under  arms  in  Canada  not  far  from 
twenty  thousand  men,  regulars,  militia,  and  Indians 
— one-fifth  only  being  French  regiments.  At  De- 
troit there  was  a  very  insignificant  garrison,  as  it  was 
of  minor  importance  compared  with  Niagara,  which 
was  the  key  to  the  Lakes  and  West.  Here  Pouchot, 
an  able  officer,  who  has  given  us  an  interesting 
memoir  of  the  war,  was  stationed,  with  authority  to 
call  to  his  assistance  the  French  forces  at  Presqu'ile, 
Le  Boeuf,  and  Venango — some  three  thousand  men 
altogether,  made  up  mostly  of  colonial  forces  and 
Indian  auxiliaries.  At  Fort  Rouille  (Toronto)  there 
was  no  force  worth  mentioning,  as  it  was  a  mere  de- 
pendency of  Niagara.  Fort  Frontenac  had  been 
destroyed  by  the  English,  and  the  French  had  no 
posts  from  that  point  as  far  as  Montreal  except  at 

247 


24^  THE   STORY  OF  CANADA. 

m 

Point-au-Baril  (near  Ogdcnsburi;h),  and  tie  Galops, 
by  the  side  of  the  well-known  rapids  of  that  name. 
The  security  of  Montreal  depended  mainly  on  the 
French  continuing  to  hold  control  of  Lake  Cham- 
plain,  and  Ile-aux-Noix  which  they  now  set  to  work 
to  fortify.  I^ourlamaque,  an  able  officer,  was  in 
command  at  the  French  forts  of  the  lake  with  a  force 
of  over  two  thousand  men,  of  whom  one-half  were 
Canadian,  and  had  orders  to  abandon  Carillon  and 
Crown  Point,  if  necessary,  and  advance  to  Ile-aux- 
Noix.  At  Quebec,  probably  fourteen  thousand 
men,  of  whom  four  thousand  were  the  pick  of  the 
French  regiments  in  Canada,  were  under  command 
of  Montcalm,  Levis,  and  V'audreuil,  and  were  en- 
trenched on  a  height  of  land  stretching  for  nearly 
six  miles  from  the  St.  Charles  River,  to  the  south- 
east of  the  fortress,  as  far  as  Montmorency  River, 
where  its  current  rushes  wildly  forward  for  its  tre- 
mendous leap  of  over  two  hundred  and  fifty  feet  into 
a  deep  and  rocky  abyss,  and  forms  that  glistening 
sheet  of  billowy  foam  which,  seen  from  a  distance, 
resembles  a  snowdrift  suspended  in  air.  The  forti- 
fications of  Quebec  had  been  strengthened  for  some 
years  back,  and  its  defences  were  entrusted  to  Rame- 
say,  who  had  led  a  force  to  Nova  Scotia  in  the 
year  of  the  Duke  d'Anville's  disastrous  expedition. 
The  city  was  ill-provided  with  provisions  for  any 
sustained  siege,  despite  the  opportune  arrival  of 
some  relief  from  France  in  the  spring.  The  \vhole 
country  had  been  impoverished  by  the  continuous 
drain  on  the  agricultural  and  labouring  population 
during  the  war,  and  the  Canadians  themselves  began 


THE    STRCCCIE    I  OK    DOM  I  \ /OX. 


240 


to  lose  coura^^e,  and  assembled  at  the  call  of  the 
authorities  with  less  spirit  than  they  had  hitherto 
shown.  Canada  was  literallv  on  the  brink  of  ruin, 
after  sc^  many  years  of  war  and  privation.  Cor- 
ruption  had  eaten  into  the  very  body  of  Canadian 


MAJOR-GENERAL  JAMES    WOLFE. 

life  and  government.  The  Intendant  Bigot  had 
been  for  years  amassing  riches  at  the  expense  of 
the  country,  and  had,  in  imitation  of  his  lord  and 
master  at  Versailles,  his  fair  Canadian  Pompadour 
to  bedeck  with  jewels  and  favours  from  the  proceeds 


250  THE   STORY  OF  CANADA, 

of  his  ill-gotten  gains.  The  names  of  P^an,  V^arin, 
Cadet,  Est^be,  and  Clavcry  arc  the  most  conspicu- 
ous amongst  those  officials  who  became  rich  on 
Canadian  misery  and  misfortune,  and  aie  dishonour- 
ably associated  with  the  darkest  hours  of  Canadian 
history.  *'  What  a  country,"  said  Montcalm, 
"  where  all  the  knaves  grow  rich,  and  honest  men 
are  ruined."  Not  the  least  discouraging  feature  of 
matters  in  Canada  at  this  crttical  time,  when  unity 
and  harmony  were  so  necessary,  was  the  jealousy 
that  Governor  de  Vaudreuil,  a  weak,  vain  man,  but 
honest  and  attached  to  his  native  province,  enter- 
tained of  Montcalm,  who  was  himself  imbued  by 
the  loftiest  spirit  that  could  animate  a  brave  soldier 
and  loyal  Frenchman. 

It  was  decided  that  the  arm.v  under  General  Wolfe, 
less  than  nine  thousand  men,  and  the  fleet  under 
Admiral  Saunders,  should  attack  Quebec ;  that  the 
Commander-in-Chief,  Amherst,  should  advance 
against  Montreal  by  way  of  Lake  Champlain,  and 
that  Brigadier  Prideaux  and  Sir  William  Johnson 
should  lead  a  considerable  force  against  Niagara. 
The  English  fleet  arrived  before  Quebec  on  the  20th 
June,  and  no  time  was  lost  in  commencing  opera- 
tions against  the  fortress.  Wolfe  w^as  w^ell  supported 
by  such  able  soldiers  as  Monckton,  Murray,  and 
Carleton,  the  latter  of  whom  became  famous  in  later 
Canadian  history  as  Lord  Dorchester.  Brigadier 
Townsend,  however  capable,  was  irritable  and  ego- 
tistic. The  soldiers  admired  Wolfe  for  his  soldierly 
qualities,  and  loved  him  for  his  thoughtfulness  for 
everyone  above  or  below  him.     Admiral   Saunders 


252  THE   STORY  OF  CAXADA. 

was  well  aided  by  Holmes  and  Durell,  and  gave  a 
loyal  and  ready  response  to  the  plans  of  Wolfe. 
The  re<^iments  had  seen  service  at  Louisbourg,  and 
were  fully  animated  by  the  courage  and  spirit  of 
their  general.  The  siege  lasted  for  eleven  weeks, 
and  was  then  only  ended  by  an  act  of  boldness  on 
the  part  of  Wolfe,  which  took  the  French  entirely 
by  surprise. 

The  principal  events  between  the  26th  June  and 
the  1 2th  September,  when  the  last  act  in  this  great 
international  drama  was  played,  can  be  described  in 
a  few  pages.  One  of  the  most  important  incidents 
was  the  occupatic^n  by  the  English  of  the  heights  of 
L(^vis,  whence  the  fortress  was  bombarded  with  an 
effectiveness  that  surprised  the  French,  who,  under 
the  advice  of  Vaudreuil,  and  in  opposition  to  that 
of  Montcalm,  had  not  taken  adequate  measures  for 
the  protection  of  so  valuable  a  position.  So  destruc- 
tive was  the  bombardment  that,  when  the  English 
took  possession  of  Quebec,  they  found  ail  the 
churches  and  buildings  of  importance  in  ruins,  and 
the  Ursuline  Convent  alone  was  saved  from  complete 
destruction. 

The  English  sustained  a  severe  repulse  near  the 
Montmorency  end  <»f  the  French  lines.  They  had 
made  an  attack  on  an  outwork  at  that  point,  and 
the  grenadiers  had  been  carried  away  by  excitement 
and  dashed  up  the  slope  of  the  heights,  where  from 
twelve  to  fourteen  thousand  French  soldiers  were 
strongly  intrenched.  A  furious  storm  of  bullets 
assailed  the  reckless  and  brave  grenadiers,  who  could 
not  even  gain  a  firm  footing  on  the  slippery  slope, 


THE    smUGGLE  FOR  DOAflMOX,  253 

while  the  rain  came  down  in  torrents,  and  their 
blood  reddened  the  rivulets  of  water.  This  was, 
however,  the  only  serious  disaster  that  the  Enj^lish 
suffered  throughout  the  siege.  The  fire  ships  of  the 
French  had  been  ill-managed,  and  failed  to  do  any 
damage  as  they  were  sent  down  against  the  fleet. 
Montcalm,  sure  of  his  impregnable  position,  refused 
to  be  drawn  from  his  intrenchments  and  to  offer 
battle  to  Wolfe.  He  knew  that  delay  was  every- 
thing to  him,  for  the  autumn  was  drawing  near. 
In  a  few  weeks  storm  and  frost  would  drive  the 
Englishmen  from  the  river.  Wherever  Montcalm 
looked,  his  position  seemed  unassailable.  The  high 
cliffs  that  stretched  for  miles  above  Quebec  offered 
a  guaranty  of  security  in  that  direction,  and  to  pre- 
vent any  doubt,  Bougainvil! .,  a  capable  officer — in 
later  years  famous  as  a  navigator — v/as  on  the  alert 
with  a  force  of  upwards  of  two  thousand  soldiers. 
He  had  double  work  to  do,  to  guard  these  appar- 
ently impregnable  cliffs,  and  to  assure  the  arrival  of 
provisions  from  the  country  by  river  and  land.  It 
was  the  expected  arrival  of  a  convoy  of  provisions 
that  proved  an  important  factor  in  the  successful 
accomplishment  of  a  plan  that  Wolfe  had  devised 
for  the  capture  of  the  city. 

While  the  siege  was  in  progress,  the  news  from 
the  west  and  from  Lake  Champlain  was  discourag- 
ing for  the  French.  Niagara  had  been  surrendered 
by  Pouchot  to  Sir  William  Johnson,  who  had  taken 
command  on  the  death  of  Prideaux — killed  at  the 
beginning  of  operations — and  a  large  force  that  w^as 
brought   up  by  Ligneris  from  the  Ohio  valley  tQ 


254  THE   STOKY  OF  CANADA. 

succour  the  post  had  been  severely  defeated.  Crown 
Point  and  Ticonderoga  had  been  abandoned  by 
Bourlamaque,  and  there  was  for  a  time  some  ex- 
pectation of  the  advance  of  Amherst  to  the  St.  Law- 
rence. Montcahn  was  obhged  to  weaken  his  army 
by  sending  his  ablest  general,  Levis,  with  a  force 
of  fifteen  hundred  men,  to  look  after  the  defences 
of  Montreal,  but  the  sluggish  English  general  wasted 
his  time  on  the  banks  of  Lake  Champlain. 

It  was  quite  clear  to  Wolfe  and  Saunders  that 
Amherst  was  not  to  give  them  any  assistance  in  the 
difficult  work  before  them.  It  was  on  the  night  of 
the  1 2th  of  September  that  Wolfe  carried  out  the 
project  which  had  been  for  some  time  forming  in  his 
mind.  He  had  managed  lo  concentrate  a  force  of 
four  thousand  men  above  the  fortress  without  awak- 
ening the  suspicions  of  the  French,  who  were  confi- 
dent that  Bougainville  was  fully  able  to  prevent  any 
force  from  attempting  so  impossible  and  foolhardy 
an  exploit  as  the  ascent  of  the  high  cliffs.  The  vis- 
itor to  the  historic  places  around  Quebec  will  be 
deeply  interested  in  a  cove,  just  above  Sillery,  now 
known  as  W^olfe's  Cove,  but  in  old  times  as  the 
Ansc-au-Foiilon.  A  zig-zag  and  difficult  path  led 
from  this  cove  to  the  top  of  the  height,  and  Wolfe 
conceived  the  hope  that  it  was  possible  to  gain  ac- 
cess in  this  way  to  the  table-land  where  he  could 
best  give  battle  to  Montcalm.  He  saw  that  the  cliff 
at  this  point  was  defended  by  only  a  small  guard, 
under  the  command,  as  it  afterwards  appeared,  of 
Vergor,  who  had  been  tried  and  acquitted  for  his 
questionable  surrender  of  Beaus^jour.      When  the 


TIIK    STRUGGLE  FOR  DOM/AION,  255 

English  boats  dropped  down  the  river  with  the  tide 
at  midnight,  on  the  12th  of  September,  there  was 
no  moon,  and  tiie  stars  alone  gave  a  faint  Hght. 
Montcahn  had  no  conception  of  the  importance  of 
the  movement  of  troops  which,  it  had  been  reported 
to  him,  was  going  on  for  some  days  above  Quebec, 
and  his  attention  was  diverted  by  the  constant  bom- 
bardment on  the  town  from  Levis,  and  a  fierce  can- 
nonading that  was  kept  up  against  Beauport  by 
Saunders.  Wolfe's  thoughts  on  that  memorable 
night  as  his  boat  passed  under  the  shadow  of  the 
dark  cliff,  we  can  imagine  from  an  incident  that  is 
related  by  one  who  was  present.  Hardly  a  dip  of 
an  oar  was  heard  from  the  flotilla  as  it  was  borne 
down  the  river,  but  from  Beauport  and  Levis  came 
the  constant  roar  of  cannon.  Every  moment  was 
carrying  him  to  fame  and  death,  and  perhaps  it  was 
some  foreboding  of  his  fate  that  led  him  to  repeat 
the  words  of  Gray's  Elegy,  which  from  that  hour 
has  become  more  famous  in  English  literature  : 

*'  The  boast  of  heraUly,  tlie  pomp  of  power. 

And  all  that  beauty,  all  that  wealth  e'er  gave, 
Await  alike  th'  inevitable  hour  ; 

The  paths  of  glory  lead  but  to  the  grave." 

As  the  boats  came  close  to  a  point  on  the  bank  a 
sentinel  challenged,"  (2^// 77W  /  "  **  La  France  !  "  re- 
plied an  officer  of  Eraser's  Highlanders  who  spoke 
French  well.  '''A  quel  regiment T'  again  challenged 
the  suspicious  soldier.  ''  De  la  Reine,"  answered  the 
same  officer,  who  happily  remembered  that  some 
companies  of  this  regiment  were  with  Bougainville, 


256  THE   STORY  OF  CANADA, 

Fate  that  eventful  nij^ht  was  on  the  side  of  the  bold 
Englishman.  The  French  were  expecting  a  convoy 
of  provisions,  and  the  sentinel  called  out,  **  Passe  !  " 
Another  sentry,  more  suspicious,  ran  down  to  the 
water's  edge,  and  asked,  "  Potirqtioi  cst-cc  que  vans  ne 
par Icz  plus  haut  /  "  The  captain  replied  with  won- 
derful coolness,  "  Tais-toi,  nous  scrons  cntcndiis  !  " — 
an  answer  which  satisfied  the  guard.  In  this  way  the 
English  boats  were  able  to  steal  into  the  cove  with- 
out being  stopped.  A  few  minutes  later  the  heights 
were  gained,  the  guard  was  overpowered,  and  the 
British  regiments  were  climbing  to  the  level  land 
without  hindrance.  By  six  o'clock  Wolfe  was  able 
to  form  his  army  of  nearly  four  thousand  men  in  line 
of  battle  on  the  Plains  of  Abraham.'^  '•  This  is  a 
serious  business,"  exclaimed  Montcalm,  as  he  saw 
the  red  line  of  the  English  regiments  on  the  table- 
land behind  Quebec.  He  appears  to  have  almost 
immediately  come  to  the  conclusion  that  it  was  nec- 
essary to  fight  the  English  before  they  received  any 
accessions  of  strength,  and  not  to  wait  for  Bougain- 
ville, who  would  probably  come  up  in  time  with  his 
force  of  two  thousand  men.  By  ten  o'clock  the  two 
armies — that  of  Montcalm  outnumbering  the  Eng- 
lish probably  by  fifteen  hundred — were  advancing 
on  each  other.  The  French  as  they  drew  near 
poured  a  volley  into  the  ranks  of  the  British  regi- 
ments, but  the  latter  reserved  their  fire  until  they 
were  within  forty  yards  of  their  enemy,  when  they 
discharged  their  guns  with  most  deadly  effect.    The 

*  Named  after  Abraham  Martin,  a  royal  pilot,  who,  in  early  times, 
owned  this  now  historic  tract. 


THE    STRUGGLE   FOR   DOMINION,  257 

French  fell  in  heaps,  and  as  the  bullets  crashed 
amon<rst  their  faltering  ranks,  they  broke  and  re- 
treated. The  battle  was  literallv  won  in  a  few  min- 
utes.  Wolfe,  who  had  been  wounded  in  the  wrist 
at  the  beginnin<r  of  the  fight,  was  leading  a  charge 
of  the  grenadiers,  who  had  shown  such  fateful  pre- 
cipitancy at  Montmorency,  when  he  was  fatally 
wounded.  He  was  removed  to  a  redoubt  in  the 
rear  and  laid  on  the  ground,  where  he  remained 
for  a  few  minutes  in  a  swoon  or  stupour.  "  They 
run!  See  how  they  run!"  exclaimed  one  of  the 
men  watching  their  wounded  chief.  "  Who  run  ?  " 
he  called,  as  he  attempted  to  rise  for  an  instant. 
"  The  enemy,  sir;  'egad,  they  give  place  every- 
where !  "  "  Go,  one  of  you,  my  lads,"  ordered 
the  dying  General,  whose  brain  was  still  clear  and 
active,  **  with  all  speed  to  Coloiel  Burton,  and  tell 
him  to  march  Webb's  regiment  down  to  the  St. 
Charles  River,  and  cut  off  the  fugitives  to  the 
bridge."  He  turned  on  his  side  and  said:  "God  be 
praised,  I  now  die  in  peace."  Then,  in  a  moment 
later,  he  passed  into  the  great  silent  land.  Mont- 
calm also  received  his  death  blow  while  he  was 
endeavouring  to  give  some  order  to  his  beaten  army. 
He  was  borne  along  by  the  crowd  of  retreating  sol- 
diers through  the  St.  Louis  gate  into  the  town.  A 
few  hours  later,  on  the  14th  September,  he  breathed 
his  last.  His  last  words  were  in  commendation  of 
Chevalier  de  Levis — a  soldier  in  no  way  inferior  to 
himself  in  military  ^-enius. 

Monckton,  who  was  next  to  Wolfe  in  rank,  had 

been  also  severely  wounded  in  the  battle,  and  con- 
>7 


258  THE   STORY  OF  CANADA. 

scciucntly  by  a  strange  irony  of  fate,  Townshcnd, 
who  had  been  unfriendly  to  Wolfe,  and  had  doubted 
his  military  capacity,  was  called  upon  to  take  com- 
mand. Levis  was  absent  at  Montreal,  unfortunately 
for  French  interests  at  this  very  critical  juncture, 
and  Vaudreuil's  opinion  prevailed  for  a  retreat  to 
Jacques  Cartier.  When  Levis  arrived  and  Vaudreuil 
consented  to  march  to  the  support  of  Quebec  it  was 
too  late.  Ramesay  had  decided  to  capitulate,  in 
view  of  the  ruined  condition  of  the  city  and  walls, 
the  scarcity  of  rations,  and  the  unwillingness  of  the 
Canadian  troops  and  citizens  to  continue  the  defence, 
when  they  found  that  the  English  were  about  to  re- 
sume the  attack.  When  the  French  army  was  mov- 
ing towards  Quebec,  the  English  were  in  possession, 
and  xXw:.  flcur-dc-lis  liad  given  place  to  the  red  cross 
of  England  on  the  old  fort  of  St.  Louis.  By  the 
terms  of  capitulation  the  troops  were  to  be  allowed 
to  march  out  with  the  honours  of  war,  and  to  be 
landed  in  France;  the  inhabitants  were  not  to  be 
disturbed ;  the  free  exercise  of  the  Roman  Catholic 
religion  was  allowed,  and  safeguards  granted  to 
houses  of  clergy  and  communities.  All  conditions 
were  provisional  until  a  treaty  was  arranged  between 
the  Powers. 

The  body  of  Montcalm  was  buried  beneath  the 
floor  of  the  Ursuline  Convent,  in  a  grave  which  had 
been  already  partly  hollowed  out  by  a  bursting  shell. 
Many  years  later  an  English  governor-general,  Lord 
Aylmer,  placed  in  the  chapel  of  the  convent  a  plain 
marble  slab,  with  the  following  graceful  tribute  to 
the  memory  of  a  great  soldier  of  whom  English  and 
French  Canadians  are  equally  proud. 


THE   STRUGGLE  FOR  DOMINION,  259 

HONNEUR 

A 

Montcalm 


Le  destin  en  lui  derobant 
La  Victoire 

L'a  Rl^COMPENSE   PAR 

Une  Mort  Glorieuse  ! 

Wolfe's  remains  were  taken  to  England,  where 
they  were  received  with  every  demonstration  of 
respect  that  a  grateful  nation  could  give.  In  Eu- 
rope and  America  the  news  of  this  victory  had  made 
the  people  wild  with  joy.  "  With  a  handful  of 
men,"  said  Pitt,  in  the  House  of  Commons,  "  he 
has  added  an  empire  to  English  rule."  A  monu- 
ment in  that  Walhalla  of  great  Englishmen,  West- 
minster Abbey,  records  that  he  "  was  slain  in  a 
moment  of  victory."  On  the  heights  of  Quebec,  in 
the  rear  of  its  noble  terrace,  still  stands  the  stately 
obelisk  which  was  erected  in  1828  under  the  inspira- 
tion of  the  Earl  of  Dalhousie  in  honour  of  Montcalm 
and  Wolfe,  and  above  all  others  attracts  the  interest 
of  the  historical  student  since  it  pays  a  just  tribute 
to  the  virtue  and  valour  of  the  two  great  com- 
manders in  the  following  simple  but  well  conceived 
language : 

Mortem.    Virtus.   Communem. 

Famam.  Historia. 

Monumentum.  Posteritas. 

Dedit. 


26o  THE   STORY  QF  CANADA. 

Wolfe  was  only  in  his  thirty-third  year  when 
he  died  on  the  field  of  Abraham.  Montcalm  was 
still  in  the  prime  of  life,  havinL,^  just  passed  forty- 
seven  years.  Both  were  equally  animated  by  the 
purest  dictates  of  honour  and  truth,  by  a  love  f  )r 
the  noble  profession  (jf  arms,  and  by  an  ardent  desire 
to  add  to  the  glory  of  their  respective  countries. 
Montcalm  was  a  member  of  the  French  nobility, 
and  a  man  of  high  culture.  His  love  for  his  mother, 
wife,  and  children  is  shown  in  his  published  letters, 
written  while  in  Canada,  and  he  was  ever  looking 
forward  to  the  time  when  he  could  rejoin  them  in 
his  beloved  chateau  of  Candiac,  and  resume  the 
studies  he  liked  so  well.  Some  Canadian  writers 
have  endeavoured  to  belittle  Montcalm,  that  they 
may  more  easily  explain  away  the  failings  of  Vau- 
dreuil,  a  native  Canadian,  who  thwarted  constantly 
the  plans  of  a  greater  man ;  but  an  impartial  his- 
torian can  never  place  these  two  men  on  the  same 
high  level.  Wolfe's  family  was  of  respectable  ori- 
gin, and  he  inherited  his  military  tastes  from  his 
father,  who  became  a  general  in  the  English  army. 
He  had  few  advantages  of  education  in  his  youth, 
though  in  later  life  he  became  studious,  and  had 
much  love  for  mathematics.  A  soldier's  life  was 
his  ambition,  and  fame  was  his  dominating  impulse. 
His  indomitable  spirit  governed  his  physical  w^eak- 
ness.  The  natural  kindness  of  his  nature  rose  su- 
perior to  the  irritability  sometimes  caused  by  his 
ill-health,  and  made  him  always  sympathise  with 
the  joys,  sorrows,  and  feelings  of  all  classes  among 
whom  he  lived.     He  had  that  magnetic  power  of 


I 


MONTCALM  AND  WOLf'F.    MOMMKNT  Al'  QUEBEC. 


262  THE   STORy  OF  CANADA. 

inspiring  liis  soldic  and  companions  vvitli  his  own 
confidence  and  coura<^c  wl.'ch  must  sooner  or  later 
give  them  victory.  He  was  a  good  son  and  made  a 
confidant  of  his  mother.  He  was  fond  of  female 
companionship,  and  was  looking  forward  hopefully 
to  a  woman's  love,  and  to  a  home  of  his  own,  when 
I^'ate  ruthlessly  struck  him  down  before  the  walls  of 
Quebec  at  the  moment  of  victory. 

It  i<  impossible  within  the  limited  space  of  this 
story  to  dwell  at  anv  len<::th  on  the  events  that  fol- 
lowed  from  the  taking  of  the  Canadian  capital  until 
the  cession  of  Canada  three  years  later.  General 
Murray,  who  was  afterwards  the  first  governor- 
general  of  Canada,  had  charge  of  the  fortress  during 
the  winter  of  1759-60,  when  the  garrison  and  people 
suffered  much  from  cold  and  disease — firewood  be- 
ing scarce,  and  the  greater  number  of  the  buildings 
in  ruins. 

Levis  had  decided  to  attack  the  town  in  the 
spring,  as  soon  as  the  French  ships  were  able  to  come 
down  from  near  Sorel,  where  they  had  been  laid  up 
all  the  winter.  Towards  the  last  of  April,  Murray 
marched  out  of  the  fortress  and  gave  battle  at  St. 
Foy  to  the  French  army,  which  largely  outnum- 
bered his  force.  His  object  was  to  attack  the 
French  before  they  \vere  able  to  place  themselves 
thoroughly  in  position  before  Quebec,  but  he  suf- 
fered a  considerable  loss,  and  w'as  obliged  to  retire 
hurriedly  within  the  walls  of  the  town,  which  was 
then  regularly  invested  by  Levis  and  the  French 
ships.  The  opportune  arrival  of  the  English  fleet 
dashed  the  rising  hopes  of  the  French  to  the  ground, 


o 

o 

1^ 


y. 


■A 

> 


en 

CI 


264  THE   STORY   OF  CAXADA. 

and  L^vis  was  obliged  to  retreat  ti)  Montreal.  In 
the  month  of  September  of  the  same  year  General 
Amherst  descended  the  St.  I.awrence,  after  havinj^ 
captured  the  fort  at  lie  (ialops — afterwards  I^'ort 
William  Augustus.  Iki<;.idier  Maviland  left  Lake 
Champlain, captured  lle-aux-Noix,  and  then  marched 
on  Montreal;  Brigadier  Murray  came  up  from  y^^'' 
bee.  All  these  forces  concentrated  on  the  same  day 
on  the  island  of  Montreal,  and  Vaudreuil  had  no 
alternative  except  to  capitulate.  By  the  terms  of 
capitulation,  which  were  drawn  up,  like  those  of 
( )uebec,  in  1^'rench,  (ireat  I^ritain  bound  herself  to 
allow  the  French  Canadians  the  free  exercise  of 
their  religion,  and  certain  specified  fraternities,  and 
all  communities  of  rcligicuscs  were  <;uaranteed  the 
])ossession  of  their  goods,  constitutions,  and  privi- 
leges, but  a  similar  favour  was  denied  to  the  Jesuits, 
the  Franciscans,  or  Recollets,  and  the  Sulpicians, 
until  the  King  should  be  consulted  on  the  subject. 
The  same  reservation  was  made  with  respect  to  the 
parochial  clergy's  tithes.  On  the  loth  of  F'ebruary, 
1763,  by  the  Treaty  of  Paris,  France  ceded  to  Great 
Britain  Canada,  with  all  its  dependencies,  the  island 
of  Cape  Breton,  and  the  Laurentian  Isles.  By  this 
treaty  the  King  pledged  himself  "  to  give  the  most 
effectual  orders,  that  his  new  Roman  Catholic  sub- 
jects may  profess  the  worship  of  their  religion,  ac- 
cording to  the  rites  of  the  Roman  Catholic  Church, 
as  far  as  the  law^s  of  Great  Britain  permit."  All  the 
pretensions  of  F" ranee  to  Acadia  were  at  last  formally 
renounced.  England  also  received  all  the  country 
east  of  the  River  Mississippi,  except  the  city  of  New 


o 


< 


in 


266  THE  STORY  OF  CANADA, 

Orleans  and  the  neighbouring  district,  as  well  as 
Florida  from  Spain  in  return  for  Havana.  Subse- 
([uently  France  gave  up  New  Orleans  to  Spain,  as 
well  as  the  great  region  of  Louisiana  westward 
of  the  Mississippi.  France  was  allowed  to  retain 
the  barren  islands  of  St.  Pierre  and  Miquelon,  and 
certain  fishing  rights  on  the  coasts  of  Newfound- 
land, which  she  had  previously  given  by  the  Treaty 
of  Utrecht.  George  II.  had  died  during  1760,  and 
George  III.  was  now  King  of  England.  Pitt  was 
forced  to  resign,  and  the  King's  favourite,  the 
incapable  Bute,  who  became  premier,  made  peace 
without  delay.  Pitt  opposed  the  fishery  conces- 
sions to  France,  but  Bute  attached  relatively  little 
importance  to  them,  and  they  have  ever  since  re- 
mained to  torment  the  people  of  Newfoundland, 
and  create  complications  in  case  that  island  consents 
to  enter  the  Canadian  Dominion.  Still,  despite 
these  concessions,  England  gained  great  advantages 
from  the  peace,  and  became  the  greatest  colonial 
and  maritime  power  of  the  world. 

Freedom  won  on  the  Plains  of  Abraham,  and  a 
great  Frenchman  and  a  great  Englishman  conse- 
crated by  their  deaths  on  the  same  battlefield  the 
future  political  union  of  two  races  on  the  northern 
half  of  the  continent,  now  known  as  the  Dominion 
of  Canada. 


XIX. 


A     PKUlol) 


'  *i 


OF      TRANSITION— PONTIACS      WAR — 
THE   gUKHKC   ACT. 


(1760-1774.) 

Thk  Canadian  people,  long  harassed  and  impov- 
erished by  war,  had  at  last  a  period  of  rest.  They 
were  allowed  the  ministrations  of  their  religion  with- 
out hindrance,  and  all  that  was  required  of  the  paro- 
chial clergy  was  that  they  should  not  take  part  in 
civil  affairs,  but  should  attend  exclusively  to  their 
clerical  duties.  The  seigniors  and  priests,  no  doubt, 
did  not  give  up  for  some  time  the  hope  that  Canada 
would  be  restored  to  France,  but  they,  too,  soon 
bowed  to  the  necessity  of  things,  and  saw  that  their 
material  and  spiritual  interests  were  quite  secure 
under  the  new  government.  None  of  the  habitants 
ever  left  Canada  after  the  war.  A  few  members  of 
the  seigniorial  nobility,  the  officials  and  some  mer- 
chants— perhaps  three  hundred  in  all — may  have 
gone  back  to  France.  Men  like  Bigot  and  Varin 
on  their  return  were  severely  punished,  and  forced 
to  give   up  as  much  as  possible  of  their  ill-gotten 

267 


268  THE   STORY  CF  CANADA. 

gains.  Governor  de  Vaudreuil  himself  was  cast  into 
the  Bastile,  but  it  was  ascertained  after  investigation 
that  he  had  no  connection  with  the  crimes  of  the 
worthless  parasites  that  had  so  long  fattened  on  the 
necessities  of  the  unhappy  province.  He  died  soon 
after  his  imprisonment ;  the  iron  of  humiliation  had 
probably  eaten  into  the  heart  of  a  man  who,  what- 
ever his  faults,  had  many  estimable  qualities,  and 
loved  his  native  country. 

For  several  years  Canada  was  under  what  has  been 
generally  called  the  military  regime;  that  is  to  say, 
the  province  was  divided  into  the  three  districts  of 
Quebec,  Three  Rivers,  and  Montreal,  of  which  the 
government  was  administered  by  military  chiefs;  in 
the  first  place  by  General  Murray,  Colonel  Burton, 
and  General  Gage  respectively.  These  military  au- 
thorities— notably  General  Murray — endeavoured  to 
win  the  confidence  of  the  people  by  an  impartial  and 
considerate  conduct  of  affairs.  Civil  matters  in  the 
parishes  were  left  practically  under  the  control  of  the 
captains  of  militia,  who  had  to  receive  new  commis- 
sions from  the  British  Crown.  Appeal  could  be  always 
made  to  the  military  chief  at  the  headquarters  of  the 
district,  but,  as  a  matter  of  fact,  the  people  generally 
managed  their  affairs  among  themselves,  in  accord- 
ance with  their  old  usages  and  laws.  Military  coun- 
cils tried  criminal  cases  according  to  English  law. 

While  the  French  Canadians  were  in  the  enjoy- 
ment of  rest  on  the  banks  of  the  St.  Lawrence  and 
its  tributary  rivers,  the  Western  Indians,  who  had 
been  the  allies  of  France  during  the  war,  suddenly 
arose  and  seized  nearly  all  the  forts  and  posts  which 


A   PERIOD   OF    TRANSITION.  269 

had  been  formerly  built  by  the  F'rench  on  the  Great 
Lakes,  in  the  valley  of  the  Ohio,  and  in  the  Illinois 
country.  After  the  taking  of  Montreal,  Captain 
Robert  Rogers,  the  famous  commander  of  the 
Colonial  Rangers,  whose  name  occurs  frequently  in 
the  records  of  the  war,  was  sent  by  General  Amherst 
to  take  possession  of  the  forts  at  Presqu'ile,  De- 
troit, Michillimackinac,  Green  Bay,  and  other  places 
in  the  West.  In  the  course  of  a  few  months  there 
were  in  all  these  western  posts  small  garrisons  of 
English  soldiers.  In  the  neighbourhood  of  Detroit 
and  Michillimackinac  there  were  French  Canadian 
villages,  conspicuous  for  their  white  cottages  with 
overhanging  bark  roofs  and  little  gardens,  orchards, 
and  meadows.  Forts  Chartres  and  Vincennes  were 
still  in  the  possession  of  the  French,  and  there  was 
a  population  of  nearly  two  thousand  French  Cana- 
dians or  Louisiana  French  living  in  the  Illinois 
country,  chiefly  at  Cahokia  and  Kaskaskia  on  the 
Mississippi.  The  Indian  tribes  that  took  part  in  the 
rising  of  1763  were  the  Ottawas,  Pottawattomies, 
Ojibways  (Chippeways),  Wyandots  (Hurons),  and 
Kickapoos,  who  lived  in  the  vicinity  of  the  upper 
lakes;  the  Delawares  (Loups  or  Lenapes)  and  the 
Shawanoes,  who  had  their  villages  on  the  Ohio  and 
its  tributary  rivers,  especially  on  the  Muskingkum 
and  the  Scioto ;  the  Sauks  or  Saks,  who  encamped 
on  the  Wisconsin ;  the  Senecas,  who  lived  not  far 
from  the  Niagara.  All  these  Indians,  except  the 
Wyandots  and  Senecas,  were  members  of  the  Algon- 
quin family.  The  Senecas  were  the  only  tribe  of 
the  Six  Nations  that  took  part  in  the  alliance  against 


270  THE   STORY  OF  CAXADA. 

England ;  the  other  tribes  were,  happily  for  English 
interests,  under  the  influence  of  Sir  William  John- 
son. 

French  emissaries  from  the  settlements  on  the 
Mississippi  made  the  Indians  believe  that  they 
would  be  soon  driven  by  the  English  from  their 
forest  homes  and  hunting  grounds,  and  that  their 
only  hope  was  in  assisting  France  to  restore  her 
power  in  America.  Many  of  these  Indian  tribes,  as 
well  as  French  settlers,  believed  until  the  proclama- 
tion of  the  treaty  of  Paris  that  Canada  would  be 
restored  to  the  F'rench.  Indian  sympathy  for 
France  was  intensified  by  the  contumely  and  neglect 
with  which  they  were  treated  by  the  English  traders 
and  authorities.  The  French,  who  thoroughly 
understood  the  Indian  character,  had  never  failed  to 
administer  to  their  vanity  and  pride — to  treat  them 
as  allies  and  friends  and  not  as  a  conquered  and  sub- 
ject race.  By  the  judicious  distribution  of  those 
gifts,  on  which  the  tribes  had  begun  to  depend  and 
receive  as  a  matter  of  right,  the  French  cemented 
the  attachment  of  the  Indians.  The  English,  on 
the  other  hand,  soon  ceased  to  make  these  presents, 
and  neglected  the  Indians  in  other  ways,  which 
excited  their  indignation  and  wounded  their  pride. 

Among  the  Western  chiefs  was  Fontiac,  whose 
name  is  as  prominent  in  the  history  of  the  past  as 
the  names  of  the  Onondaga  Garangula,  the  Huron 
Kondiaronk  (Rat),  the  Mohawk  Thayendenagea 
(Brant),  and  the  Shawanoese  Tecumseh.  He  was  the 
son  of  an  Ottawa  chief  and  an  Ojibway  mother,  and 
.  had  a  high  reputation  and  large  influence  among  the 


A    PENIOD  OF   TRANSITION.  2/1 

tribes  of  the  upper  lakes.  He  showed  in  his  career 
all  the  strength  and  weaknesses  of  the  Indian  char- 
acter— great  courage,  treachery,  vanity,  and  generos- 
ity, according  to  the  impulses  of  the  moment.  The 
war  in  which  he  took  so  prominent  a  part  is  gener- 
ally called  by  his  name;  his  is  the  central  figure  in 
the  striking  drama  which  was  enacted  in  the  West- 
ern and  Ohio  country  for  two  years  and  a  half  before 
peace  generally  reigned  and  Canada  could  be  consid- 
ered secure  from  Indian  attacks. 

At  Detroit,  where  Major  Gladwin  was  in  com- 
mand, Pontiac  hoped  to  seize  the  fort  by  a  stratagem. 
The  Ottawas  and  other  Indians  under  that  chief  were 
to  meet  the  English  officers  in  council  within  the 
fort  at  an  appointed  time.  They  had  filed  off  the 
tops  of  the  barrels  of  their  muskets  so  as  to  conceal 
them  easily  under  their  garments.  While  in  council 
Pontiac  was  to  give  a  signal  which  would  tell  the 
assembled  warriors  that  the  time  had  come  for  fall- 
ing on  the  garrison  and  taking  possession  of  the 
fort.*  Some  writers  give  credence  to  the  story  that 
an  Indian  maiden,  the  mistress  of  Gladwin,  warned 
him  of  the  scheme  of  the  Indian  chief,  who  came  to 
the  council,  in  accordance  with  his  intention,  and 
found  the  garrison  in  arms  and  ready  for  any  treach- 
erous movement  on  his  part.  He  left  the  fort  in 
anger,  and  soon  afterwards  attacked  it  with  all  his 
force,  though  to  no  purpose,  as  Gladwin  was  able  to 
hold  it  for  many  months,  until  aid  reached  him  from 

*  The  siege  of  Detroit  by  Pontiac  inspired  one  of  the  best  historic 
novels  ever  written  by  a  Canadian —  Wacousta,  or  the  Prophecy^ 
by  Major  Richardson,  who  was  the  author  of  several  other  books. 


272  THE   STORY  0/-'  CAXADA. 

the  cast.  As  one  Indian  woman's  devotion  saved 
Detroit,  so  the  treachery  of  a  Delaware  girl  gave 
Fort  Miami  and  its  little  garrison  to  the  Indians 
encamped  on  the  Maumee.  Holmes,  the  com- 
mandant, was  her  lover,  and  believed  her  when  she 
told  him  that  a  scjuaw,  who  was  seriously  ill  in  one 
of  the  wigwams,  wished  to  see  him.  He  proceeded 
on  his  charitable  mission,  and  was  shot  dead  while 
about  entering  the  place  of  his  destination.  At 
Michillimackinac  Captain  Etherington  was  surprised 
by  a  clever  piece  of  strategy  on  the  part  of  a  body 
of  Sacs  and  Ojibways,  who  invited  him  to  witness  a 
contest  between  them  at  their  favourite  sport  of  La- 
crosse, which  in  these  modern  times  has  been  made 
the  national  game  of  Canadians.  While  the  game 
was  going  on,  the  gate  was  left  open  while  the  offi- 
cers and  S(jkliers  stood  in  groups  outside,  close  to 
the  palisades,  watching  the  Indians  as  they  tossed 
the  ball  to  and  fro  between  the  goals  on  the  level 
ground  opposite  the  fort.  The  squaws,  wrapped  in 
their  blankets,  passed  in  and  out  the  fort,  without 
attracting  any  attenti^^n  from  the  interested  specta- 
tors. Suddenly,  when  the  game  was  most  hotly 
contested,  the  ball  was  violently  driven  in  the  direc- 
tion of  the  pickets  of  the  fort.  A  crowd  of  the  sav- 
age players  tumultuously  followed  the  ball,  and  in  a 
moment  were  inside  the  fort  where  they  snatched 
weapons  from  the  squaws.  One  officer  and  several 
soldiers  were  instantly  killed,  but  Etherington  and 
the  remainder  of  the  garrison  wxre  taken  prisoners. 
Etherington  and  a  well-known  trader  of  the  West, 
Alexander  Henry,  eventually  escaped,  after  having 


A    rtKIOD   Ob    TRANSITION,  2/3 

been  on  several  occasions  on  the  point  of  death. 
In  six  weeks'  time  from  the  first  attack  on  Detroit, 
on  the  9th  of  May,  1763,  all  the  forts  in  the  West- 
ern and  Ohio  country  had  been  seized  and  destroyed 
by  tile  Indians,  except  Fort  Pitt  at  the  forks  of  the 
Ohio,  the  one  at  (ireen  Bay  which  was  abandf)ned, 
and  another  at  Li^onier.  The  garrisons  were  mas- 
sacred or  made  prisoners,  and  in  many  cases  tortured 
and  even  eaten.  The  frontiers  of  Virginia  and 
Pennsylvania  were  laid  waste  by  hordes  of  savages, 
who  burned  the  homes  of  the  settlers,  murdered  a 
lar^e  number,  and  carried  off  many  ])risoners,  men, 
women,  and  children,  to  their  savage  fastnesses  in 
the  western  wilderness.  The  war  never  ended  until 
Viririnia  and  Pennsylvania — where  the  Quaker  ele- 
ment still  prevailed — were  aroused  from  their  apathy 
and  ^ave  the  recjuisite  aid  to  an  expedition  under 
the  command  of  an  able  ofificer.  Colonel  Hou(juet, 
who  had  been  one  of  Brigadier  Forbes's  officers  dur- 
ing the  campaign  of  1759  in  the  Ohio  valley.  He 
rescued  Fort  Pitt,  after  administering  to  the  Indians 
a  severe  defeat  at  Bushy  Run.  A  year  later  he  suc- 
ceeded in  taking  a  large  force  into  the  very  heart  of 
a  country  where  the  Indians  thought  themselves 
safe  from  any  attack  of  their  white  enemy.  His 
unexpected  appearance  on  the  banks  of  the  Mus- 
kingkum  awed  the  Delawares,  Shawanoes,  and  Min- 
goes,  who  gladly  agreed  to  terms  of  peace,  especially 
as  they  knew  that  Colonel  Bradstreet  was  in  their 
rear  on  the  banks  of  Lake  Erie.  The  prisoners, 
whom  the  Indians  had  taken  during  their  raids  on 

the  frontier  settlements  of  Virginia  and  Pennsyl- 
18 


274  7'^^   STO/^Y  OF  CAXADA. 

vania,  were  restored  to  tlieir  friends  and  relatives 
who  had,  in  the  majority  of  cases,  never  hoped  to 
sec  them  a|^^'lin.  The  annals  of  those  days  tell  us 
strange  stories  of  the  infatuation  wiiich  some  younj; 
women  felt  for  the  savage  warriors  whom  they  had 
wedded  in  Indian  fashion.  Some  children  had  for- 
gotten their  mothers,  and  Parkman  relates  in  his 
graphic  narrative  of  those  memorable  times  that  one 
girl  only  recalled  her  childhood  when  she  heard  her 
distracted  mother  sing  a  song  with  which  she  had 
often  lulled  her  daughter  to  sleej)  in  happier  days. 

Peace  again  reigned  in  the  West.  Detroit,  after 
repulsing  Pontiac  so  successfully,  was  at  last  relieved, 
and  the  red  cross  of  England  floated  above  the  forts 
of  Chartres  and  Vincennes,  which  were  given  up  by 
the  PVench. 

By  the  end  of  the  autumn  of  1765  France  pos- 
sessed only  a  few  acres  of  rock,  constantly  enveloped 
in  fog,  on  the  southern  coast  of  Newfoundland,  of 
all  the  great  dominion  she  once  claimed  in  North 
America.  Pontiac  now  disappears  from  history, 
and  is  believed  to  have  been  killed  by  an  Indian 
warrior  of  the  Illinois  nation,  after  a  drunken  bout 
at  the  village  of  Cahokia — an  ignominious  ending  to 
the  career  of  a  great  chief  whose  name  was  for  so 
many  months  a  menace  to  English  authority  in  that 
wilderness  region,  which  was  declared  in  later  years 
by  an  imperial  statute,  the  Quebec  Act,  to  be  a  part 
of  Canada's  illimitable  domain. 

While  this  Indian  war  was  going  on,  George  III., 
in  the  autumn  of  1763,  issued  a  proclamation  estab- 
lishing four  new  governments  in   North  America: 


A   PERIOD  OF   TRANSITION.  275 

Quebec,  East  Florida,  West  Florida,  and  Grenada. 
The  {governors  were  empowered  to  summon  general 
assemblies,  and  to  make  laws  and  ordinances  for 
good  government  with  the  consent  of  the  councils 
and  the  representatives  of  the  people,  and  to  estab- 
lish courts  of  justice.  Members  elected  to  the  pro- 
posed assemblies  had  to  take  the  oaths  of  allegiance 
and  supremacy,  and  the  declaration  against  transub- 
stantiation.  No  assembly,  however,  ever  met,  as  the 
French  Canadian  population  were  unwilling  to  take 
the  test  oath,  and  the  government  of  the  province 
was  carried  o\\  solely  by  the  Governor-General — Gen- 
eral Muiiay — with  the  assistance  of  an  executive 
council,  composed  of  certain  officials  and  leading 
residents  in  the  colony.  From  1763  to  1774  the 
province  remained  in  a  very  unsettled  state,  chiefly 
on  account  of  the  uncertainty  that  prevailed  as  to 
the  laws  actually  in  force.  The  "new  subjects,"  or 
French  Canadians,  contended  that  justice,  so  far  as 
they  were  concerned,  should  be  administered  in 
accordance  with  their  ancient  customs  and  usages. 
On  the  other  hand,  "  the  old,"  or  English  subjects, 
argued  from  the  proclamation  of  1763,  that  it  was 
His  Majesty's  intention  at  once  to  abolish  the  old 
jurisprudence  of  the  country,  and  to  establish 
English   law   in   its  place. 

Not  the  least  important  part  of  the  proclamation 
of  1763  was  that  relating  to  the  Indians,  who  were 
not  to  be  disturbed  in  the  possession  of  their  hunt- 
ing grounds.  Lands  could  be  alienated  by  the 
Indians  only  at  some  public  meeting  or  assembly 
called  for  that  special  purpose  by  the  Governor  or 


276  THE    STORY  Oh    CAS  A  DA. 

conimandcr-in-chicf  w  here  such  lands  were  situated. 
This  was  the  cotumenceinent  of  that  just  and  honest 
puHcy  towards  the  Indians  which  has  ever  since  been 
followed  by  the  government  of  Canada.  One  hun- 
dred and  ten  years  later,  an  interesting  spectacle 
was  witnessed  in  the  great  Northwest  Territory  of 
Canada.  The  lieutenant-j^overnor  of  the  new  pro- 
vince of  Manitoba,  constituted  in  1870  out  of  the 
prairie  lands  of  that  rich  region,  met  in  council  the 
representatives  of  the  Indian  tribes,  and  solemnly 
entered  into  treaties  with  them  for  the  transfer  to 
Canada  of  immense  tracts  of  prairie  lands  where  we 
now  see  wide  stretches  of  fields  of  nodding  grain. 

Governor  Murray  conducted  his  government  on 
principles  of  justice  and  forbearance  towards  the 
French  Canadians,  and  refused  to  listen  to  the 
unwise  and  arb'trary  counsel  of  the  four  or  five 
hundred  *'  old  subjects,"  who  wished  to  rule  the 
province.  He  succeeded  in  inspiring  the  old  in- 
habitants of  the  province,  or  "  new  subjects,"  with 
confidence  in  his  intentions.  The  majority  of  the 
"  old  subjects,"  who  were  desirous  of  ruling  Canada, 
are  described  by  the  Governor  in  a  letter  to  Lord 
Shelburne,  as  "  men  of  mean  education,  traders, 
mechanics,  publicans,  followers  of  the  army," — a 
somewhat  prejudiced  statement.  As  a  rule,  how- 
ever, the  judges,  magistrates,  and  officials  at  that 
time  were  men  of  little  or  no  knowledge. 

In  1774,  Parliament  intervened  for  the  first  time 
in  Canadian  affairs,  and  passed  the  Quebec  Act, 
w^hich  greatly  extended  the  boundaries  of  the  pro- 
vince of  Quebec,  as  defined  by  the  proclamation  of 


A    PEKIOD   OF    TRAiWSniOX,  277 

1763.  On  one  side,  the  province  now  extended  to 
the  frontiers  of  New  Enj^land,  Pennsylvania,  New 
York  province,  the  Ohio,  and  the  left  bank  of  the 
Mississippi;  on  the  other,  to  the  Hudson's  Hay 
Territory.  Labrador,  Anticosti,  and  the  Ma<^dalen 
islands,  annexed  to  Newfoundland  by  the  proclama- 
tion of  1763,  were  made  part  of  the  province  of 
Quebec. 

The  Quebec  Act  created  much  debate  in  the 
flouse  of  Commons.  The  Marl  of  Chatham,  in  the 
House  of  Lords,  described  it  as  "a  most  cruel, 
and  odious  measure."  The  opposition  in  the  ])ro- 
vince  was  among  the  British  inhabitants,  who  sent 
over  a  petition  for  its  repeal  or  amendment.  Their 
principal  griev^ance  was  that  it  substituted  the 
laws  and  usages  of  Canada  for  P^nglish  law.  The 
Act  of  1774  was  exceedingly  unpopular  in  the  Eng- 
lish-speaking colonies,  then  at  the  commencement 
of  the  revolution  on  account  of  the  extension  of  the 
limits  of  the  province  so  as  to  include  the  country 
long  known  as  the  old  Northwest  in  American  his- 
tory, and  the  consequent  confinement  of  the  Thir- 
teen Colonies  between  the  Atlantic  coast  and  the 
Alleghany  Mountains,  beyond  which  the  hardy  and 
bold  frontiersmen  of  Virginia  and  Pennsylvania  were 
already  passing  into  the  great  valley  of  the  Ohio. 
Parliament,  however,  appears  to  have  been  influ- 
enced by  a  desire  to  adjust  the  government  of  the 
province  so  as  to  conciliate  the  majority  of  the 
Canadian  people  at  this  critical  time. 

The  advice  of  Sir  Guy  Carleton,  afterwards  Lord 
Dorchester,  w^ho  succeeded  General  Murray  as  Gov- 


278  THE   STORY  OF  CAXADA. 

crnor-Gencral,  had  much  to  do  with  the  HbcraHty 
of  the  (Jucbcc  Act  towards  the  I'Vcnch  Canadians. 
After  a  careful  study  of  the  country  he  came  to  the 
conclusion  that  the  French  civil  law  ou^ht  to  be 
retained,  althouj^h  he  was  met  by  the  earnest  advice 
to  the  contrary  of  two  able  lawyers,  Chief-Justice 
Hay  and  Attorney-Cjeneral  Maseres,  who  believed 
a  code  adopted  from  Kn^lish  and  French  principles 
was  preferable.  Maseres,  who  was  of  Huguenot 
Joscent  and  much  prejudiced  against  Roman  Cath- 
olics, was  also  an  advocate  of  a  legislative  assembly 
to  be  exclusively  Protestant — in  other  words,  of 
giving  all  power  practicallv  into  the  hands  of  a  small 
Hritish  minority.  When  the  subject  of  a  new  Cana- 
dian constitution  came  to  be  discussed  in  Fngland, 
Carleton  crossed  the  Atlantic  in  1769  and  remained 
absent  from  Canada  for  four  years.  He  returned  to 
carry  out  the  Quebec  Act,  which  vvas  the  founda- 
tion of  the  large  political  and  religious  liberties  which 
F>ench  Canada  has  ever  since  enjoyed. 

The  new  constitution  came  into  force  in  October, 
1774.  It  provided  that  Roman  Catholics  should  be 
no  longer  obliged  to  take  the  test  oath,  but  only  the 
oath  of  allegiance.  The  government  of  the  pro- 
vince was  entrusted  to  a  governor  and  a  legislative 
council,  appointed  by  the  Crown,  inasmuch  as  it  was 
**  inexpedient  to  call  an  assembly."  This  council 
had  the  power,  with  the  consent  of  the  Governor,  to 
make  ordinances  for  the  good  government  of  the 
province.  In  all  matters  of  controversy,  relative  to 
property  and  civil  rights,  recourse  should  be  had  to 
the  French  civil  procedure,  whilst  the  law  of  Eng- 


/i    PEklOD   OF    TKAXStTIOM, 


2/9 


laiul  should  obtain  in  criininal  cases.  Roman  Cath- 
olics wore  permitted  to  observe  their  reli^non  with 
perfect  freedom,  and  their  cleri^y  wore  to  enjoy 
their  "  accustomed  dues  and  rights,"  with  respect 
to  such  persons  as  professed  that  creed. 

Sir  Guy  Carleton  nominated  a  le«;islativc  council 
of  twenty-three  members,  of  whom  ei^dit  were  Ro- 
man Catholics.  This  body  sat,  as  a  rule,  with  closed 
doors;  both  lan^ua^es  were  emi)loyed  in  the  debates, 
and  the  ordinances  aj^reed  to  were  drawn  up  in 
Kiiirlish  and  French.  In  1776  the  Governor-(ien- 
eral  called  to  his  assistance  an  advisory  privy  coun- 
cil of  five  members. 

When  Canada  came  under  the  operation  of  the 
Quebec  Act,  the  Thirteen  Col')nies  were  on  the  eve 
of  that  revolution  which  ended  in  the  establishment 
of  a  federal  republic,  and  had  also  most  important 
influence  on  the  fortunes  of  the  country  through 
which  the  St.  Lawrence  flows. 


OTS? 


XX. 


THE   AMKRICAX    REVOLUTION— INVASION    OF    CAN- 
ADA— DEATH    OF    MONTGOMERV  — PEACE. 


(1 774- 1 783.) 


The  Canadian  people  had  now  entered  on  one  of 
the  most  important  periods  of  their  history.  Their 
country  was  invaded,  and  for  a  time  seemed  on  the 
point  of  passing  under  the  control  of  the  congress  of 
the  old  Thirteen  Colonies,  now  in  rebellion  against 
England.  The  genius  of  an  able  English  governor- 
general,  however,  saved  the  valley  of  the  St.  Law- 
rence for  the  English  Crown,  and  the  close  of  the 
war  for  American  independence  led  to  radical 
changes  in  the  governments  of  British  North  Amer- 
ica. A  large  population,  imbued  with  the  loftiest 
principles  of  patriotism  and  self-sacrifice,  came  in 
and  founded  new  provinces,  and  laid  the  basis  of  the 
present  Dominion  of  Canada. 

During  the  revolution  emphatic  appeals  were 
made  to  the  Canadian  French  to  join  the  English 
colonies  in  their  rebellion  against  England.  VV^ith 
a  curious  ignorance  of  the  conditions  of  a  people, 

280 


77/ A  AMEkrcAS'  Ri:vor.VTros\  2%\ 

who  coulil  not  read  and  rarely  saw  a  printed  book, 
anil  never  owned  a  printinj^  press  "^  durin|^  the 
French  regime,  references  were  made  by  the  con- 
gress that  assembled  at  Philadelphia  in  September 
in  1774,  to  the  writings  of  Beccaria  and  the  spirit 
of  the  **  immortal  Montesquieu."  The  delegates 
attacked  the  Quebec  Act  as  an  exhibition  of  Roman 
Catholic  tyranny  at  the  very  time  they  were  asking 
the  aid  and  sympathy  of  French  Canadians  in  the 
struggle  for  independence.  A  few  weeks  later  the 
same  congress  ignored  the  ill-advised  address  and 
appealed  to  the  Canadians  to  join  them  on  the  broad 
grounds  of  continental  freedom.  The  time,  how- 
ever, was  too  sliort  to  convince  the  clergy  and  lead- 
ing men  of  the  province  that  there  was  a  change  in 
the  feeling  of  the  majority  in  the  congress  with 
respect  to  the  Roman  Catholic  religion.  The  mass 
of  the  French  Canadians,  especially  in  the  rural  dis- 
tricts, no  doubt  looked  with  great  indifference  on 
the  progress  of  the  conflict  between  the  King  of  Eng- 
land and  his  former  subjects,  but  in  Quebec  and 
Montreal,  principally  in  the  latter  town,  there  were 
found  English,  as  well  as  French-speaking  persons 
quite  ready  to  welcome  and  assist  the  forces  of  con- 
gress when  they  invaded  Canada.  On  the  other 
hand,  the  influences  of  the  Quebec  Act  and  of  the 
judicious  administrations  of  Murray  and  Carleton 
were  obvious  from  the  outset,  and  the  bishop,  Mon- 
seigneur  Briand — who  had  been  chosen  with  the 
silent  acquiescence  of  the  English  Government — the 

*  The  first  paper  printed  in  French  Canada  was  the  Qiubec  Gazette 
which  appeared  in  1764. 


282  THE   STORY-   OF  CANADA. 

clergy  of  the  Roman  Catholic  Church,  and  tl>e  lead- 
ing seigniors  combined  to  maintain  Canada  under 
the  dominion  of  a  generous  Power  which  had  already 
given  such  undoubted  guaranties  for  the  preserva- 
tion of  the  civil  and  religious  rights  of  the  "  new 
subjects."  In  fact,  the  enemies  of  England  were  to 
be  found  chiefly  among  the  "  old  subjects,"  who  had 
attempted  to  obtain  an  assembly  in  which  the  French 
Canadians  would  be  ignored,  and  had  been,  and  were 
still  bitterly  antagonistic  to  the  Quebec  Act,  with  its 
concessions  to  the  French  Canadian  majority.  Many 
of  these  disaffected  persons  were  mere  adventurers 
who  were  carrying  on  a  secret  correspondence  with 
the  leaders  of  the  American  Revolution,  and  even 
went  so  far  as  to  attempt  to  create  discontent  among 
the  French  Canadians  by  making  them  believe  that 
their  liberties  were  in  jeopardy,  and  that  they  would 
have  to  submit  to  forced  military  service,  and  all 
those  exactions  which  had  so  grievously  burdened 
them  in  the  days  of  the  French  dominion.  The 
habitants,  ignorant  and  credulous,  however,  remained 
generally  inert  during  the  events  which  threatened 
the  security  of  Canada.  It  was  left  to  a  few  enlight- 
ened men,  chiefly  priests  and  officers  of  the  old 
French  service,  to  understand  the  exact  nature  of 
the  emergency,  and  to  show  their  appreciation  of 
what  England  had  done  for  them  since  the  cession. 
When  the  first  Continental  Congress  met  at  Phila- 
delphia, on  September  5,  1774,  the  colonies  were  on 
the  eve  of  independence  as  a  result  of  the  coercive 
measures  forced  on  Parliament  by  the  King's  pliable 
ministers,  led  by  Lord  North.     The  "  declaration," 


THE  AMERICAN  REVOLCTION.  283 

however,  was  not  finally  proclaimed  until  nearly  two 
years  later — on  July  4,  1776, — when  the  Thirteen 
Colonies  declared  themselves  "  free  and  independent 
States,"  absolved  of  their  allej^iance  to  the  British 
Crown.  But  many  months  before  this  great  epoch- 
making  event,  war  had  actually  commenced  on  Lake 
Champlain.  On  an  April  day,  in  the  now  memor- 
able year,  1775,  the  '*  embattled  farmers"  had  fired 
at  Concord  and  Lexington,  the  shots  "  heard  round 
the  world,"  and  a  few  weeks  later  the  forts  of  Crown 
Point  and  Ticonderoga,  then  defended  by  very  fee- 
ble garrisons,  were  in  the  possession  of  Colonial 
troops  led  by  Ethan  Allen  and  Seth  Warner,  two  of 
the  **  Green  Mountain  Bovs,"  who  orijanised  this 
expedition.  Canada  was  at  this  time  in  a  very  de- 
fenceless condition.  Only  eight  hundred  regular 
troops  altogether  were  in  the  colony,  very  many  of 
the  Enc^lish  residents  of  Montreal  and  Ouebec  were 
of  doubtful  loyalty,  the  majority  of  the  French 
Canadians  were  indifferent,  and  could  not  be  in- 
duced to  rally  in  any  numbers  to  the  defence  of  the 
province.  Happily  for  the  best  interests  of  Canada 
at  this  crisis  there  was  at  the  head  of  the  administra- 
tion one  of  the  ablest  men  who  have  ever  been  sent 
to  Canada — a  governor-general  who  may  well  be 
compared  with  Frontenac  as  a  soldier  and  Lord 
Elgin  as  a  statesman — and  that  was  Sir  Guy  Carle- 
ton,  the  friend  of  Wolfe,  with  whom  he  had  served 
at  Quebec.  His  conciliatory  attitude  towards  the 
F'rench  Canadian  population,  and  his  influence  in 
moulding  the  Ouebec  Act,  gave  him  great  weight 
with  the  bishop  and  clergy  of  the  Roman  Catholic 


284  rilE    STORY  OF   CAXADA. 

faith  and  leading  men  of  the  majority.  The  British 
Government,  with  culpable  neglect  of  his  warnings 
and  appeals,  left  him  unsupported  until  the  very 
last  moment,  when  the  fate  of  Canada  was  literally 
trembling  in  the  balance.  In  the  autumn  of  1775 
General  Montgomery,  at  the  head  of  a  considerable 
force  of  congress  troops,  captured  the  forts  of 
Chambly  and  St.  Johns  on  the  Richelieu,  and  a 
few  days  later  occupied  Montreal,  which  had  been 
hastily  evacuated  by  Carleton,  who  at  once  recog- 
nised the  impracticability  of  defending  it  with  any 
chance  of  success,  since  he  had  an  insufficient  force, 
and  could  not  even  depend  on  the  fealty  of  the 
inhabitants.  Quebec,  at  this  juncture,  was  the  key 
to  Canada,  and  there  he  determined  to  make  his 
fight.  He  passed  in  the  night-time  the  batteries 
which  the  congress  troops  had  built  at  Sorel  and  the 
adjacent  islands.  The  oars  of  his  boat  were  muffled, 
and  when  in  close  proximity  to  the  enemy  the  men 
used  the  palms  of  their  hands.  He  reached  Quebec 
safely,  and  at  once  inspired  the  garrison  and  loyal 
residents  with  his  courageous  spirit.  He  arrived 
not  a  moment  too  soon.  General  Benedict  Arnold 
— a  name  discredited  in  history — had  succeeded  in 
reaching  Quebec  by  the  route  of  the  Kennebec  and 
Ch^udiere  rivers — a  route  which  in  early  times  had 
been  followed  by  the  Abenakis,  those  firm  allies  of 
the  Canadians.  Arnold  was  not  able  to  commence 
any  active  operations  against  Quebec  until  the  arrival 
of  Montgomery  from  Montreal,  with  a  force  of  fif- 
teen hundred  men,  of  whom  a  very  small  number 
were  French  Canadians.     At  this  time  there  were  in 


77/A    AMhA'ICA.V   KEl'OIMTION.  28$ 

Quebec  only  some  eighteen  hundred  regular  and 
milit  u  troops,  of  whom  over  five  hundred  were 
French  Canadians,  under  Colonel  Voyer.  No  doubt 
the  American  commanders  confidently  expected  to 
find  in  Quebec  many  active  sympathisers  who 
would  sooner  or  later  contrive  to  give  the  town  into 
their  hands,  when  these  learned  that  all  Canada  ex- 
cept the  capital  was  in  the  possession  of  the  invad- 
ing forces. 

Many  of  their  men  were  sick,  and  the  artillery  was 
insufficient  for  the  siege  of  the  fortress.  It  was 
decided  then  to  attempt  to  seize  the  town  by  a  piece 
of  strategy,  which  was  very  simple  though  it  had 
some  chance  of  success.  Arnold  was  well  acquainted 
with  the  locality  and  entered  heartily  into  the  plan 
which  was  devised  by  Montgomery  for  a  combined 
attack  on  Lower  Town.  Late  at  night  on  the  31st 
December,  during  a  heavy  snowstorm,  Montgomery 
marched  from  Anse-au-Foulon  along  a  rough  and 
narrow  road  between  the  foot  of  Cape  Diamond  and 
the  St.  Lawrence,  as  far  as  Pres-de-ville,  or  what  is 
now  Little  Champlain  Street.  Arnold  at  the  same 
time  advanced  from  the  direction  of  the  St.  Charles. 
It  was  arranged  that  the  two  parties  should  meet  at 
the  lower  end  of  Mountain  Street  and  force  Prescott 
Gate,  then  only  a  rough  structure  of  pickets.  While 
the  two  bodies  were  carrying  out  this  plan,  attacks 
were  made  on  the  w^estern  side  of  the  fortress  to 
distract  the  attention  of  the  defenders.  Carleton, 
however,  was  not  taken  by  surprise  as  he  had  had 
an  intimation  of  what  was  likely  to  happen.  Con- 
sequently the  garrison  was  on  the  alert  and  Mont- 


286  THE  STORY'  OF  CANADA, 

gomcry's  force  was  swept  by  a  sudden  discharge  of 
cannon  and  musketry  as  they  came  to  Pres-de-ville 
— a  defile  with  a  precipice  towards  the  river  on  one 
side,  and  the  scarped  rock  abt)ve  him  on  the  other 
— where  all  further  approach  to  the  lower  town  was 
intercepted  by  a  battery.  Montgomery,  his  two 
aides,  and  a  considerable  number  of  his  soldiers  were 
instantly  killed.  In  the  meantime  Arnold  had  led 
his  party  from  the  St.  Charles  to  the  Sault-au-Mate- 
lot,  where  he  captured  the  first  barrier  defended  by 
two  guns.  Arnold  was  wounded  in  the  knee,  and 
his  force  was  obliged  to  proceed  without  him  under 
the  command  of  Captain  Morgan,  to  the  attack  of 
the  second  battery  near  the  eastern  end  of  the  nar- 
row  street,  known  as  Sault-au-Matelot  from  the 
most  early  times.  The)'  succeeded  in  obtaining 
possest;ion  of  some  houses  in  the  street,  but  it  was 
not  long  before  they  were  surrounded  by  Carleton's 
men  and  forced  to  surrender  to  the  number  of 
several  hundreds.  Arnold  remained,  during  the 
winter,  in  command  of  the  congress  troops,  who 
suffered  severely  from  small-pox,  the  cold,  and  even 
want  of  sufficient  provisions.  In  the  spring  he  was 
superseded  by  General  Wooster  who  brought  with 
him  a  reinforcement,  but  the  arrival  of  English  frig- 
ates with  troops  and  supplies,  forced  him  to  raise 
the  siege  and  retire  hastily  to  Montreal.  A  few 
weeks  later  General  Burgoyne,  w^ith  seven  regi- 
ments, including  a  large  German  contingent  under 
General  Frederick  Riedesel,  arrived  at  Quebec,  and 
arrangements  were  made  for  an  active  campaign 
against  the  rebellious  colonists.     Arnold  found  it 


THE  AMERICAN  KEVOLUTJON,  287 

prudent  iniincdiatcly  to  leave  Montreal  which  was 
aj^ain  occupied  by  Mnghsh  troops.  I  lie  forts  on  the 
Richelieu  were  regained  b\-  the  Knglish,  Carleton 
destroNed  the  congress  fleet  under  the  command  of 
Arnold  on  Lake  C'hamplain,  and  Crown  Point  was 
part!}'  destroyed  and  abandoned  by  the  retreating 
Americans.  Soon  after  these  occurrences  in  1775, 
Carleton  found  to  his  chagrin  that  the  command  of 
the  forces  was  given  to  lUirgoyne,  a  much  inferior 
man,  who  had  influence  with  Lord  Germain,  better 
known  in  Lnglish  history  as  that  Lord  George  Sack- 
ville  who  had  disgraced  himself  on  the  battlefield  of 
Minden,  but  had  subsequent!)'  found  fa\our  with 
the  King,  who  made  him  one  of  his  ministers,  and 
ga\  e  him  \irtually  the  direction  of  the  campaign  in 
America.  Carleton,  h(iwever,  remained  Governor- 
General  until  1778,  when  he  was  replaced  at  his  own 
recpiest  by  General  Haldimand,  a  very  energetic 
and  capable  man,  to  whom  Canadian  historians 
have,  as  a  rule,  never  rendered  adequate  justice. 
During  these  years  Carleton  had  his  difficulties  aris- 
ing out  of  the  unsettled  condition  of  things  in  the 
province,  the  prospects  of  invasion,  and  the  antag- 
onism of  Chief- Justice  Livius,  who  replaced  a  far 
better  man,  Hey,  and  was  himself  superseded  by 
the  Governor-General  on  account  of  his  efforts  to 
weaken  the  authority  of  the  government  at  a  time 
when  faction  and  rivalry  should  hav^e  ceased  among 
those  who  wished  to  strengthen  British  interests  in 
America.  Livius  appealed  to  the  home  authorities, 
and  through  the  influence  of  Lord  George  Germain 
was  reinstated,  though  he  did  not  find  even  in  this 


288  77/A    SYOAV  OF  CAXADA. 

quarter  an  approval  in  words  of  his  own  conduct, 
and  never  returned  to  fill  his  former  position  in 
Canada. 

It  is  not  necessary  to  dwell  here  on  the  events  of 
a  war  whose  history  is  so  familiar  to  every  one. 
Bur^oyne  was  defeated  at  Saratoga,  and  his  army, 
from  which  so  much  was  expected,  made  prisoners 
of  war.  This  great  misfortune  of  the  British  cause 
was  followed  by  the  alliance  of  France  with  the 
States.  French  money,  men,  and  ships  eventually 
assured  the  independence  of  the  republic  whose  for- 
tunes were  very  low  at  times,  despite  the  victory  at 
Saratoga.  England  was  not  well  served  in  this 
American  war.  She  had  no  Washington  to  direct 
her  campaign.  Gage,  Burgoyne,  and  Cornwallis 
were  not  equal  to  the  responsibilities  thrown  upon 
them.  Cornwallis's  defeat  at  Yorktown  on  the  19th 
October,  1781,  was  the  death-blow  to  the  hopes  of 
England  in  North  America.  This  disaster  led  to 
the  resignation  of  Lord  North,  whose  heart  was 
never  in  the  war,  and  to  the  acknowledgment  by 
England,  a  few  months  later,  of  the  independence  of 
her  old  colonies.  Before  this  decisive  victory  in  the 
south,  the  Ohio  valley  and  the  Illinois  country  w^ere 
in  the  possession  of  the  troops  of  congress.  George 
Rogers  Clark, the  bold  backwoodsman  of  Kentucky, 
captured  Kaskaskia,  Cahokia,  and  Vincennes,  and 
gave  the  new  States  that  valid  claim  to  the  west 
which  was  fully  recognised  in  the  treaty  of  peace. 

The  definitive  treaty  of  peace,  which  was  signed 
in  1783,  acknowledged  the  independence  of  the  old 
English  colonies,  and  fixed  the  boundaries  of  the 


THE  AMERICAN  REVOLUTION,  289 

new  republic  and  of  Canada,  and  laid  the  found.i- 
tion  of  fruitful  controversies  in  later  times. 

The  United  States  now  controlled  the  territory 
extending  in  the  cast  from  Nova  Scotia  (which  then 
included  New  Brunswick)  to  the  head  of  the  Lake 
of  the  Woods  and  to  the  Mississippi  River  in  the 
west,  and  in  the  north  from  Canada  to  the  Floridas 
in  the  south,  the  latter  having  a<;ain  become  Spanish 
possessions.  The  boundary  between  Nova  Scotia 
and  the  Republic  was  so  ill-defined  that  it  took  half 
a  century  to  fix  the  St.  Croix  and  the  Highlands 
which  were  by  the  treaty  to  divide  the  two  coun- 
tries. In  the  far  west  the  line  of  division  was  to  be 
drawn  through  the  Lake  of  the  Woods  "  to  the 
most  northwestern  point  thereof,  and  from  thence 
on  a  due  west  course  to  the  River  Mississippi  " — a 
physical  impossibility,  since  the  head  of  the  Missis- 
sippi, as  was  afterwards  found,  was  a  hundred  miles 
or  so  to  the  south.  In  later  times  this  geographical 
error  was  corrected,  and  the  curious  distortion  of  the 
boundary  line  that  now  appears  on  the  maps  was 
necessary  at  the  Lake  of  the  Woods  in  order  to  strike 
the  forty-ninth  parallel  of  north  latitude,  which  was 
subsequently  arranged  as  the  boundary  line  as  far  as 
the  Rocky  Mountains.  Of  the  difficulties  that  arose 
from  the  eastern  boundary  line  I  shall  speak  later. 

From  1778  until  1783  the  government  of  Canada 
was  under  the  direction  of  General  Haldimand,  who 
possessed  that  decision  of  character  absolutely  essen- 
tial at  so  critical  a  period  of  Canadian  history.  The 
Congress  of  the  States  had  never  despaired  of  obtain- 
ing the  assistance  of  the  French  Canadians,  and  of 

«9 


290  THE    sroKV  OF  CAXAlhA. 

brinj^iii^  the  country  into  the  new  republic.  Haldi- 
numd  had  to  arrest  Du  Calvet,  Mesplet,  and  Jotard, 
as  leader.^  in  a  seihtious  movement  aj^ainst  Knj^land. 
Fleur\-  Mesplet  put  up  in  Montreal  the  first  printing- 
press,  which  *;ave  him  and  his  friends  superior  facil- 
ities for  circulating  dani^erous  appeals  to  the  restless 
element  of  the  population.  Du  Calvet  was  a  French 
Protestant,  in  active  sympathy  with  Congress,  and 
had  a  violent  controversy  with  Haldimand,  uho  was, 
at  last,  forced  to  take  se'vere  measures  against  him. 
While  on  his  wav  to  Eni^land  he  was  drowned,  and 
the  country  spared  more  of  his  dangerous  influence. 
Jotard,  a  French  attorney,  was  a  contributor  to  a 
paper  owned  by  Mesplet,  and  a  warm  sympathiser 
with  the  efforts  of  Admiral  D'Kstaing  and  General 
Lafayette  to  win  back  the  allegiance  of  the  French 
Canadians.  The  appeals  of  these  two  distinguished 
men  to  the  memories  of  the  old  subjects  of  France 
had  no  immediate  effect  except  upon  a  very  small 
class,  although  it  might  have  been  different  had 
French  troops  made  their  appearance  on  the  St. 
Lawrence.  One  Canadian  priest,  La  Valiniere,  w^ho 
was  connected  with  the  seminary  of  St.  Sulpice  in 
Montreal,  was  sent  to  England  with  the  approval  of 
the  bishop,  for  his  openly  expressed  sympathy  with 
France.  Happily  Monseigneur  Briand  and  the  great 
majority  of  the  clergy  stood  always  firm  on  the  side 
of  England. 


^ss^ 

^^s 

^^i^^^i^S^^VJSr^StKLj^^J'^^SxfiiS^f^i^^^^^^lf'l^^^^ 

uV^jn^l^^^^^K 

^^s^^ 

XXI. 


COMING   OF    THE    LOYALISTS. 


(i;cS3-i79i.) 


It  was  during  Governor  Haldimand's  administra- 
tion that  one  of  the  most  important  events  in  the 
history  of  Canada  occurred  as  a  result  of  the  Ameri- 
can war  for  independence.  This  event  was  the  com- 
ing to  the  provinces  of  many  thousand  people,  known 
as  United  Empire  Loyalists,  who,  during  the  pro- 
gress of  the  war,  but  chiefly  at  its  close,  left  their 
old  homes  in  the  thirteen  colonies.  When  the 
Treaty  of  1783  was  under  consideration,  the  British 
representatives  made  an  effort  to  obtain  some  prac- 
tical consideration  from  the  new  nation  for  the  claims 
of  this  unfortunate  people  who  had  been  subject  to 
so  much  loss  and  obloquy  during  the  war.  All  that 
the  English  envoys  could  obtain  was  the  insertion 
of  a  clause  in  the  treaty  to  the  effect  that  Congress 
would  recommend  to  the  legislatures  of  the  several 
States  measures  of  restitution — a  provision  which 
turned  out,  as  Franklin  intimated  at  the  time,  a  per- 
fect nullity.     The  English  Government  subsequently 

291 


292  THE   STOKY  OF  CANADA, 

indemnified  these  people  in  a  measure  for  their  self- 
sacrifice,  and  amon^  other  things  ^ave  a  lar^e  num- 
ber of  them  vahiable  tracts  of  hind  in  tlie  provinces 
of  British  Xortli  America.  Many  of  them  settletl  in 
Nova  Scotia,  others  founded  New  Hrunswick  and 
Upper  Canada,  now  Ontario.  Their  inlluence  on 
the  pohtical  fortunes  of  Canada  has  been  necessarily 
very  considerable.  I'or  years  they  and  their  children 
were  animated  by  a  feelini;  of  bitter  animosity  against 
the  United  States,  the  effects  of  which  could  be 
traced  in  later  times  when  cjuestions  of  difference 
arose  between  Enj;land  and  her  former  colonies. 
They  have  proved  with  the  French  Canadians  a  bar- 
rier to  the  <Ti(nvth  of  any  annexation  party,  and  as 
powerful  an  intlujnce  in  national  and  social  life 
as  the  Turitan  element  itself  in  the  Eastern  and 
Western   States. 

Amon<4  the  sad  stories  of  the  past  the  one  which 
tells  of  the  exile  of  the  Loyalists  from  their  homes, 
of  their  trials  and  strui^<^les  in  the  valley  of  the 
St.  Lawrence,  then  a  wilderness,  demands  our 
deepest  sympathy.  In  the  history  of  this  conti- 
nent it  can  be  only  compared  with  the  melancholy 
chapter  which  relates  the  removal  of  the  French 
population  from  their  beloved  Acadia.  During  the 
Revolution  they  comprised  a  very  large,  intelligent, 
and  important  body  of  people,  in  all  the  old  colo- 
nies, especially  in  New  York  and  at  the  South, 
where  they  were  in  the  majority  until  the  peace. 
They  were  generally  known  as  Tories,  w^hilst  their 
opponents,  who  supported  independence,  were 
called    Whigs.      Neighbour    was    arrayed    against 


COMING  OF  THE  LOYALISTS.  2C)^ 

neighbour,  families  were  divided,  the  greatest  cruel- 
ties were  inflicted  as  the  war  went  on  upon  men  and 
women  who  believed  it  was  their  duty  to  be  faithful 
to  king  and  country.  As  soon  as  the  contest  was 
ended,  their  pri)perty  was  confiscated  in  several 
States.  Many  |)ersons  were  banished  and  prohibited 
from  returning  to  their  homes.  An  American  writer, 
Sabine,  tells  us  that  previous  to  the  evacuation  of 
New  York,  in  the  month  of  September,  17S3,  "  up- 
wards of  twehe  thousand  men,  women,  and  children 
embarked  at  the  city,  at  Long  and  Staten  Islands, 
for  Nova  Scotia  and  the  Bahamas."  Very  wrong 
impressions  were  held  in  those  days  of  the  climate 
and  resources  of  the  provinces  to  which  these  peo- 
ple fled.  Time  was  to  prove  that  the  lot  of  many 
of  the  loyalists  had  actually  fallen  in  pleasant  places, 
in  No\'a  Scotia,  New  Hrunswick,  and  Upper  Can- 
ada; that  the  country,  where  most  of  them  settled, 
was  superior  in  many  respects  to  the  New  England 
States,  and  equal  to  the  State  of  New  York  from 
which  so  many  of  them  came. 

It  is  estimated  that  between  forty  and  fifty  thou- 
sand people  reached  British  North  America  by  1786. 
They  commenced  to  leave  their  old  homes  soon 
after  the  breaking  out  of  the  war,  but  the  great 
migration  took  place  in  1783-84.  Many  sought  the 
shores  of  Nova  Scotia,  and  founded  the  town  of 
Shelburne,  which  at  one  time  held  a  population  of 
ten  or  twelve  thousand  souls,  the  majority  of  whom 
were  entirely  unsuited  to  the  conditions  of  the  rough 
country  around  them,  and  soon  sought  homes  else- 
where.    Not  a  few  settled  in  more  favourable  parts 


294  THE   STORY  OF  CANADA, 

of  Nova  Scotia,  and  even  in  Cape  Breton.  Consid- 
erable numbers  found  rest  in  the  beautiful  valley  of 
the  St.  John  River,  and  founded  the  province  of 
New  Brunswick.  As  many  more  laid  the  beginnings 
of  Upper  Canada,  in  the  present  county  of  Glen- 
garry, in  the  neighbourhood  of  Kingston  and  the 
Bay  of  CJuinte,  on  the  Niagara  River,  and  near  the 
I'Vench  settlements  on  the  Detroit.  A  few  also  set- 
tled in  the  country  now  known  as  the  Eastern  Town- 
ships of  French  Canada.  A  great  proportion  of  the 
men  were  officers  and  soldiers  of  the  regiments  which 
were  formed  in  several  colonies  out  of  the  large  loyal 
population.  Among  them  were  also  men  who  had 
occupied  positions  of  influence  and  responsibility  in 
their  respective  communities,  divines,  judges,  offi- 
cials, and  landed  proprietors,  whose  names  were 
among  the  best  in  the  old  colonies,  as  they  are  cer- 
tainly in  Canada.  M.my  among  them  gave  up  valu- 
able estates  which  had  been  acquired  by  the  energy 
of  their  ancestors.  Unlike  the  Puritans  who  founded 
New  England,  they  did  not  take  away  with  them 
their  valuable  property  in  the  shape  of  money  and 
securities,  or  household  goods.  A  rude  log  hut  by 
the  side  of  a  river  or  lake,  where  poverty  and 
wretchedness  were  their  lot  for  months,  and  even 
years  in  some  cases,  was  the  refuge  of  thousands, 
all  of  whom  had  enjoyed  every  comfort  in  well-built 
houses,  and  not  a  few  even  luxury  in  stately  man- 
sions, some  of  which  have  withstood  the  ravages  of 
time  and  can  still  be  pointed  out  in  New^  England. 
Many  of  the  loyalists  were  quite  unfitted  for  the 
rude  experiences  of  a  pioneer  life,  and  years  passed 


COAf/XC  Of-    THE   f.OVAf.ISTS,  2^5 

before  they  and  their  children  coiuiucrcd  the  wilder- 
ness and  nuide  a  liveliln)otl.  I  he  British  (jovern- 
ment  was  extremely  liberal  in  its  grants  of  lands  to 
this  class  of  persons  in  all  die  provinces. 

The  government  supplied  these  pioneers  in  the 
majority  of  cases  with  food,  clothing,  and  necessary 
farming  implements.  For  some  years  they  suffered 
many  privations;  one  was  called  **  the  year  of  fam- 
ine," when  hundreds  in  Upper  Canada  had  to  live 
on  roots,  ami  even  the  buds  of  trees,  or  anything 
that  might  sustain  life.  h^)rtunately  some  lived  in 
favoured  localities,  where  pigeons  and  other  birds, 
and  fish  of  all  kinds,  were  plentiful.  In  the  sum- 
mer and  fall  there  were  (juantities  of  w  ild  fruit  and 
nuts.  Maple  sugar  was  a  great  luxury,  when  the 
people  once  learned  to  make  it  from  the  noble  tree, 
whose  symmetrical  leaf  may  well  be  made  the  Cana- 
dian national  emblem.  It  took  the  people  a  long 
while  to  accustom  themselves  to  the  conditions  of 
their  primitive  pioneer  life,  but  now  the  results  of 
the  labours  of  these  early  settlers  and  their  descend- 
ants can  be  seen  far  and  wide  in  smiling  fields,  richly 
laden  orchards,  and  gardens  of  old-fashioned  flowers 
throughout  the  country  which  they  first  made  to 
blossom  like  the  rose.  The  rivers  and  lakes  were  the 
only  means  of  communication  in  those  early  limes, 
roads  were  unknown,  and  the  wayfarer  could  find  his 
way  through  the  illimitable  forests  only  by  the  help 
of  the  **  blazed  "  trees  and  the  course  of  streams. 
Social  intercourse  was  infrequent  except  in  autumn 
and  winter,  when  the  young  managed  to  assemble 
as  they  always  will.     Love  and  courtship  went  on 


296  THE   srOKY  OF  CAXADA. 

even  in  this  wilderness,  though  marriage  was  uncer- 
tain, as  the  visits  of  clergymen  were  very  rare  in 
many  places,  and  magistrates  could  alone  tie  the 
nuptial  knot — a  very  unsatisfactory  performance  to 
the  cooler  lovers  who  loved  their  church,  its  cere- 
monies and  traditions,  as  dearly  as  they  loved  their 
sovereign.  The  story  of  those  days  of  trial  has  not 
yet  been  adequately  written ;  perhaps  it  never  will 
be,  for  few  of  those  pioneers  have  left  records  be- 
hind them.  As  we  wander  among  the  old  burying 
grounds  of  those  founders  of  Western  Canada  and 
New  Brunswick,  and  stand  by  the  gray,  moss-cov- 
ered tablets,  with  names  effaced  by  the  ravages  of 
years,  the  thought  will  come  to  us,  what  interesting 
stories  could  be  told  by  those  who  are  laid  beneath 
the  sod,  of  sorrows  and  struggles,  of  hearts  sick 
with  hope  deferred,  of  expectations  never  realised, 
of  memories  of  misfortune  and  disaster  in  another 
land  where  they  bore  so  much  for  a  stubborn  and 
unwise  king.  Yet  these  grass-covered  mounds  are 
not  simply  memorials  of  suffering  and  privation ; 
each  could  tell  a  story  of  fidelity  to  principle,  of 
forgetfulness  of  self-interest,  of  devotion  and  self- 
sacrifice — the  grandest  story  that  human  annals  can 
tell — a  story  that  should  be  ever  held  up  to  the  ad- 
miration and  emulation  of  the  young  men  and  women 
of  the  present  times,  who  enjoy  the  fruits  of  the 
labours  of  those  loyal  pioneers. 

Although  no  noble  monument  has  yet  been  raised 
to  the  memory  of  these  founders  of  new  provinces — 
of  English-speaking  Canada;  although  the  majority 
lie  forgotten  in  old  graveyards  where  the  grass  has 


COMING  OF  THE   LOYALISTS.  297 

grown  rank,  and  common  flowers  alone  nod  over 
their  resting-places,  yet  the  names  of  all  are  written 
in  imperishable  letters  in  provincial  annals.  Those 
loyalists,  including  the  children  of  both  sexes,  who 
joined  the  cause  of  Great  Britain  before  the  Treaty 
of  Peace  in  1783,  were  allowed  the  distinction  of 
having  after  their  name  the  letters  U.  E.  to  preserve 
the  memory  of  their  fidelity  to  a  United  Empire. 
A  Canadian  of  these  modern  days,  who  traces  his 
descent  from  such  a  source,  is  as  proud  of  his  line- 
age as  if  he  were  a  Derby  or  a  Talbot  of  Malahide, 
or  inheritor  of  other  noble  names  famous  in  the 
annals  of  the  English  peerage. 

The  records  of  all  the  provinces  show  the  great 
influence  exercised  on  their  material,  political,  and 
intellectual  development  by  this  devoted  body  of 
immigrants.  For  more  than  a  century  they  and 
their  descendants  have  been  distinguished  for  the 
useful  and  important  part  they  have  taken  in  every 
matter  deeply  associated  with  the  best  interests  of 
the  country.  In  New  Brunswick  we  find  among 
those  who  did  good  service  in  their  day  and  genera- 
tion the  names  of  Wilmot,  Allen,  Robinson,  Jarvis, 
Hazen,  Burpee,  Chandler,  Tilley,  Fisher,  Bliss, 
Odell,  Botsford;  in  Nova  Scotia,  Inglis  (the  first 
Anglican  bishop  in  the  colonies),  Wentworth,  Bren- 
ton.  Blowers  (Chief  Justice),  Cunard,  Cutler,  Howe, 
Creighton,  Chipman,  Marshall,  Halliburton,  Wil- 
kins,  Huntingdon,  Jones;  in  Ontario,  Cartwright, 
Robinson,  Hagerman,  Stuart  (the  first  Anglican 
clergyman),  Gamble,  Van  Alstine,  Fisher,  Grass, 
Butler,   Macaulay,  Wallbridge,   Chrysler,   Bethune, 


29^  THE   STORY  OF  CAXADA. 

Mcrritt,  McNab,  Crawford,  Kirby,  Tisdale,  and 
Rycrson.  Among  these  names  stand  out  promi- 
nently those  of  Wihiiot,  Howe,  and  Huntingdon, 
who  were  among  the  fathers  of  responsible  govern- 
ment ;  those  of  Tilley,  Tupper,  Chandler,  and  Fisher, 
who  were  among  the  fathers  of  confederation ;  of 
Ryerson,  who  exercised  a  most  important  influence 
on  the  system  of  free  education  which  Ontario  now 
enjoys.  Among  the  eminent  living  descendants  of 
U.  E.  Loyalists  are  Sir  Charles  Tupper,  long  a 
prominent  figure  in  politics;  Christopher  Robin- 
son, a  distinguished  lawyer,  who  was  counsel  for 
Canada  at  the  Herinij  Sea  arbitration;  Sir  Richard 
Cartwright,  a  liberal  leader  remarkable  for  his  keen, 
incisive  style  of  debate,  and  his  knowledge  of  finan- 
cial questions  ;  Honourable  George  E.  Foster,  a 
former  finance  minister  of  Canada.  We  might  ex- 
tend the  list  indefinitely  did  space  permit.  In  all 
walks  of  life  we  see  the  descendants  of  the  loyalists, 
exercising  a  decided  influence  over  the  fortunes  of 
the  Dominion. 

Conspicuous  among  the  people  who  remained 
faithful  to  England  during  the  American  revolution, 
we  see  the  famous  Iroquois  chief,  Joseph  Brant, 
best  known  by  his  Mohawk  name  of  Thayendane- 
gea,  w^ho  took  part  in  the  war,  and  was  for  many 
years  wrongly  accused  of  having  participated  in  the 
massacre  and  destruction  of  Wyoming,  that  beaute- 
ous vale  of  the  Susquehanna.  It  was  he  whom  the 
poet  Campbell  would  have  consigned  to  eternal 
infamy  in  the  verse : 


^^vt/^n 


299 


300  THE    srORY  OF  CAXADA. 

*'  The  mammoth  comes — the  foe,  the  monster,  Brandt — 

With  all  his  howling,  desolating  band  ; 
These  eyes  have  seen  their  blade  and  burning  piue 

Awake  at  once,  and  silence  half  your  land. 
Red  is  the  cup  they  drink,  but  not  with  wine — 

Awake  and  watch  to-night,  or  see  no  morning  shine." 

Posterity  has,  however,  recognised  the  fact  that 
Joseph  Brant  was  not  present  at  this  sad  episode  of 
the  American  war,  and  the  poet  in  a  note  to  a  later 
edition  admitted  that  the  Indian  chief  in  his  poem 
was  **  a  pure  and  declared  character  of  fiction." 
He  was  a  sincere  friend  of  English  interests,  a  man 
of  large  and  statesmanlike  views,  who  might  have 
taken  an  important  part  in  colonial  affairs  had  he 
been  educated  in  these  later  times.  When  the  war 
was  ended,  he  and  his  tribe  moved  into  the  valley  of 
the  St.  Lawrence,  and  received  from  the  government 
fine  reserves  of  land  on  the  Bay  of  Quinte,  and  on 
the  Grand  River  in  the  western  part  of  the  province 
of  Upper  Canada,  where  the  prosperous  city  and 
county  of  Brantford,  and  the  township  of  Tyendi- 
naga — a  corruption  of  Thayendanegea — illustrate 
the  fame  he  has  won  in  Canadian  annals.  The  de- 
scendants of  his  nation  live  in  comfortable  homes, 
till  fine  farms  in  a  beautiful  section  of  Western  Can- 
ada, and  enjoy  all  the  franchises  of  white  men.  It 
is  an  interesting  fact  that  the  first  church  built  in 
Ontario  was  that  of  the  Mohawks,  who  still  preserve 
the  communion  service  presented  to  the  tribe  in 
1710  by  Queen  Anne  of  England. 

General  Haldimand's  administration  will  always 
be  noted  in  Canadian  history  for  the  coming  of  the 


COMING  OF  THE  LOYALISTS, 


301 


loyalists,  and  for  the  sympathetic  interest  he  took 
ill  scttlin^r  tliese  people  on  the  lands  of  Canada,  and 
in  alleviating  their  difficulties  by  all  the  means  in 
the  power  of  his  government.  In  these  and  other 
matters  of  Canadian  interest  he  proved  conclusively 
that  he  was  not  the  mere  military  martinet  that 
some  Canadian  writers  with  inadequate  information 
would  make  him.  When  he  left  Canada  he  was 
succeeded  by  Sir  Guy  Carleton,  then  elevated  to  the 
peerage  as  Lord  Dorchester,  who  was  called  upon  to 
take  part  in  great  changes  in  the  constitution  of 
Canada  which  must  be  left  for  review  in  the  follow- 
ing chapter. 


XXII. 

FOUNDATION      OV      NKW      J'RoVINCKS — ESTABLISH- 
MENT     OF     RKI*KFSEN"IATI\  K     INSTITUTIONS. 


(1792-1812.) 


The  history  of  the  Dominion  of  Canada  as  a  self- 
governing  community  commences  with  the  conces- 
sion of  representative  institutions  to  the  old  provinces 
now  comprised  within  its  limits.  By  1792  there  were 
provincial  governments  established  in  Upper  and 
Lower  Canada,  Nova  Scotia,  New  Brunswick,  and 
Prince  Edward  Island.  From  1713  to  1758  the  gov- 
ernment of  Nova  Scotia  consisted  of  a  governor,  or 
lieutenant-governor,  a  council  possessing  legislative, 
executive,  and  even  judicial  powers.  In  October, 
1758,  an  assembly  met  for  the  first  time  in  the  town 
of  Halifax,  which  had  been  the  capital  since  1749. 
New  Brunswick  had  been  separated  from  Nova 
Scotia  in  1784,  but  a  representative  assembly  did 
not  assemble  until  1786,  when  its  form  of  govern- 
ment was  identical  with  that  of  the  older  province. 
Prince  Edward  Island  was  a  part  of  Nova  Scotia 
until   1769  when  it  was  created  a  distinct  province, 

3Q2 


FOUXDA  1  lOX   OF  NEW  PROVINCh.S.  303 

with  a  lieutenant-governor,  a  combined  executive 
and  legislative  council,  and  also  an  assembly  in  1773. 
The  island  of  Cape  Breton  had  a  lieutenant-governor 
and  executive  council,  and  remained  apart  from 
Nova  Scotia  until  1820  when  it  was  included  in  its 
government.  In  1791  the  province  of  Upper  Can- 
ada was  formally  separated  from  the  province  of 
Quebec  by  an  act  of  the  imperial  parliament,  and 
was  called  Upper  Canada,  while  the  French  section 
received  the  name  of  Lower  Canada.  At  that  time 
the  total  population  of  British  North  America  did 
not  exceed  a  quarter  of  a  million  of  souls,  of  whom 
at  least  a  hundred  and  forty  thousand  lived  on  the 
banks  of  the  St.  Lawrence  and  its  tributary  streams, 
and  almost  entirely  represented  the  language,  insti- 
tutions, and  history  of  the  French  regime.  In  the 
French  province  there  was  also  a  small  British  pop- 
ulation, consisting  of  officials,  commercial  men,  and 
loyalists  who  settled  for  the  most  part  in  the  East- 
ern Townships.  The  population  of  Upper  Canada, 
about  twenty-five  thousand,  was  almost  exclusively 
of  loyalist  stock — a  considerable  number  having 
migrated  thithqr  from  the  maritime  provinces. 
Beyond  the  Detroit  River,  the  limit  of  English  set- 
tlement, extended  a  vast  region  of  wilderness  which 
was  trodden  only  by  trappers  and  Indians. 

The  Constitutional  Act  of  1791,  which  created  the 
two  provinces  of  Upper  and  Lower  Canada,  caused 
much  discussion  in  the  British  Parliament  and  in 
Canada,  where  the  principal  opposition  came  from 
the  English  inhabitants  of  the  French  province. 
These  opponents  of  the  act  even  sent  Mr,  Adam 


304  THE    STORY   OI-    iA\.i/>J. 

Lymburncr,  a  Oucbcc  merchant  of  hij^h  standinj^, 
to  express  their  opinions  at  the  bar  of  the  Kn^^ish 
House  of  Commons.  Tlie  advocates  of  the  new 
scheme  of  government,  however,  believed  that  the 
division  of  Canachi  into  two  provinces  would  have 
the  effect  of  creatinj^  harmony,  since  the  French 
would  be  left  in  the  majority  in  one  section,  and  the 
British  in  the  other.  The  Quebec  Act,  it  was  gen- 
erally admitted,  had  not  promoted  the  prosperity  or 
happiness  of  the  people  at  large,  (ireat  uncertainty 
still  existed  as  to  the  laws  actually  in  force  under 
the  act.  In  not  a  few  cases  the  judges  were  con- 
fessedly ignorant — Chief  Justice  Livius,  for  instance 
— of  French  Canadian  jurisprudence.  The  increase 
of  the  English  population  was  a  strong  argument 
for  a  grant  of  representative  institutions.  Accord- 
ingly the  constitutional  act  provided  for  an  assem- 
bly, elected  by  the  people  on  a  limited  franchise,  in 
each  province,  and  for  a  legislative  council,  ap- 
pointed by  the  Crown.  The  sovereign  might  annex 
hereditary  letters  of  honour  to  the  right  of  summons 
to  the  legislative  council,  but  no  attempt  was  ever 
made  to  create  a  Canadian  aristocracy,  or  distinct 
class,  under  the  authority  of  this  section  of  the  act. 
The  British  Government  reserved  the  right  of  impos- 
ing, levying,  and  collecting  duties  of  customs,  and 
of  appointing  or  directing  their  payment,  though  it 
left  the  exclusive  apportionment  of  all  moneys  levied 
in  this  way  to  legislature.  The  free  exercise  of  the 
Roman  Catholic  religion  was  permanently  guaran- 
teed. A  seventh  part  of  all  uncleared  Crown  lands 
was  reserved  for  the  use  of  the  Protestant  clergy — a 


FOUXDATIOX   OF  XEW  PROVL\CES.  305 

provision  that  caused  much  trouble  in  the  future. 
The  civil  law  of  French  Canada  was  to  regulate  prop- 
erty and  civil  rights  in  that  province.  English  crim- 
inal law  was  to  prevail  in  both  the  Canadas.  The 
Governor-General  of  Quebec  and  Lieutenant-Gov- 
ernor of  Upper  Canada  were  each  assisted  by  an 
executive  council  chosen  by  those  functionaries,  and 
having  a  right  to  sit  also  in  the  legislative  council. 
Lord  Dorchester  was  the  first  governor-general,  not 
only  of  Canada,  but  likewise  of  the  other  provinces 
by  virtue  of  separate  commissions  to  that  effect. 
The  heads  of  the  executive  in  all  the  provinces 
except  Quebec  were  called  lieutenant-governors,  but 
they  became  only  directly  subordinate  to  the  gov- 
ernor-general when  he  was  present  in  a  province  in 
his  official  capacity. 

The  city  where  the  first  assembly  of  Lower  Can- 
ada met  in  1792  was  one  of  great  historic  interest. 
The  very  buildings  in  which  the  government  trans- 
acted its  business  had  echoed  to  the  tread  of  states- 
men, warriors,  and  priests  of  the  old  regime.  The 
civil  and  military  braiiches  of  the  government  then 
occupied  apartments  in  the  old  Chateau  St.  Louis, 
elevated  on  the  brink  of  an  inaccessible  precipice. 
On  a  rocky  eminence,  in  the  vicinity  of  a  battery 
close  to  Prescott  Gate,  erected  in  1797,  was  an  old 
stone  building,  generally  known  as  the  Bishop's 
Palace.  Like  all  the  ancient  structures  of  Quebec, 
this  building  had  no  claims  to  elegance  of  form,  al- 
though much  labour  and  expense  had  been  bestowed 
on  its  construction.  The  chapel  of  this  building, 
situated   near    the   communication  with  the  lower 

90 


3o6  Tim  sroHV  oh  c.i.\.i/>.i. 

town,  w.is  convcrtid  into  a  eliaiiil)cr,  in  wliicli  were 
held  ihc  first  incctings  of  the  representatives  of 
Lower  Caii.ula. 

On  tile  l/tli  of  Dceeniher,  tlie  two  houses  assem- 
bled in  their  resj)ecti\e  chambers  in  the  old  palace, 
in  obedience  to  the  proclam.ilinii  of  Major-CJeneral 
iXlured  Cl.irke,  who  acted  as  lieutenant-governor  in 
the  absence  of  the  L;overnor-^eneral,  Lord  Dorches- 
ter. AmoULi  the  ofhcers  who  surrounded  the  throne 
on  th.it  occasion,  was  nrobablv  his  Roval  Ilii-hness 
the  Duke  of  Kent,  who  was  in  conunand  of  the  7th 
Roy.d  l^'usiliers,  then  stationed  in  the  old  ca[)ital. 
On  so  momentous  an  occasion,  the  assemblai^e  was 
lari^e,  and  comj)rised  all  the  notabilities  of  Ln<4lish 
and  r'rench  sijciety.  In  the  JeL;islature  were  not  a 
few  men  whose  families  had  lon</  been  associated 
with  the  fortunes  of  the  colony.  Chausse^^ros  de 
Lery,  St.  Ours,  LonL;ueuil,  Lanaudierc,  Rouville, 
Houcherx'ille,  Salaberr\',  and  Lotbiniere,  were  amon^ 
the  names  that  told  of  the  old  rei^ime,  and  ^a\e  a 
guaranty  to  the  h'rench  Canadians  that  their  race 
and  institutions  were  at  last  protected  in  the  lei^isla- 
tive  halls  of  their  countr}-.  M.  Panet,  a  distin- 
guished h'rench  Canadian,  was  unanimously  elected 
the  speaker  of  the  first  assembly  of  h'rench  Canada. 

Now  let  us  leave  the  Bishop's  Palace,  amoni;  the 
rocks  of  old  Quebec,  and  visit  the  humble  villa^^c  of 
Newark,  where  Lieutenant-Governor  Simcoc  opened 
his  first  legislature  under  the  new  constitution  in  the 
autumn  of  1792.  Across  the  rapid  river  was  the 
territory  of  the  Republic,  which  was  engaged  in  a 
grand  experiment  of  government.     The  roar  of  the 


c 


o 
s 

C3 


V. 

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H 

H 

H 
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u 


O 


30S  ///A    S/OA'V  OF  CAXADA. 

im*<^hty  cataract  of  Xiaj^.ira  could  be  heard  in  calm 
suinmer  days.  On  the  banks  of  this  picturesijuc 
river  was  the  residence  of  the  lieutenant-governor, 
known  as  Navy  Hall,  where  the  legislators  of  Upper 
Canada  probably  met.  This  was  but  a  mean  par- 
li.unent  house,  compared  with  the  massive  pile 
which  was  chosen  for  a  similar  purpose  in  Quebec; 
and  yet  each  was  appropriate  in  its  way.  The 
Hishop's  Palace  illustrated  an  old  community,  which 
had  aimed  at  the  conquest  of  the  larger  part  of 
America,  and  had  actually  laid  the  foundations  of 
an  empire;  the  legislative  cabin  of  Newark  was  a  fit 
type  of  the  ruggedness  and  newness  of  western 
colonial  life.  The  axe  was  whirring  amid  the  for- 
ests, and  only  here  and  there,  through  a  vast  wil- 
derness, could  be  seen  the  humble  clearings  of  the 
pioneers. 

The  session  was  opened  with  the  usual  speech, 
which  was  duly  reported  to  the  house  of  assembly 
by  the  speaker,  Mr.  McDonnell  of  Glengarry,  and 
immediately  taken  into  consideration  by  the  repre- 
sentatives of  the  yeomanry  of  the  western  province. 
It  is  said  that  on  more  than  one  occasion,  the  repre- 
sentatives were  forced  to  leave  their  confined  cham- 
ber and  finish  their  work  under  the  trees  before  the 
door.  If  the  attendance  was  small  on  this  occasion, 
it  must  be  remembered  that  there  were  many  diffi- 
culties to  overcome  before  the  two  Houses  could 
assemble  in  obedience  to  the  governor's  proclama- 
tion. The  seven  legislative  councillors  and  sixteen 
members  who  represented  a  population  of  only 
25,000  souls,  were  scattered  at  very  remote  points, 


h'F.rh'KshA'  I A  71 1  '/•:  /x.s  7/  re  7/oxs.        309 

and  could  only  find  their  way  at  times  in  canoes  and 
slow  sailing  craft.  Nor  must  it  be  for^^otten  that  in 
those  earlv  davs  of  colonisation  men  had  the  stern 
necessities  of  existence  to  consider  before  all  things 
else.  However  iirj^ent  tlie  call  to  public  duty,  the 
harvest  must  be  gathered  in  before  laws  could  be 
made. 

Such  were  the  circumstances  under  which  the 
legislatures  were  opened  in  the  two  provinces,  repre- 
senting the  two  distinct  races  of  the  population. 
Humble  as  were  the  beginnings  in  the  little  parlia- 
ment house  of  Newark,  yet  we  can  see  from  their 
proceedings  that  the  men,  then  called  to  do  the 
public  business,  were  of  practical  habits  and  fully 
ali\'e  to  the  value  of  time  in  a  new  country,  as  they 
sat  for  only  five  weeks  and  passed  the  same  number 
of  bills  that  it  took  seven  months  at  Quebec  to 
pass. 

The  history  of  Canada,  during  the  twenty  years 
that  elapsed  between  the  inauguration  of  the  consti- 
tution of  1792  and  the  war  of  i8i2,  does  not  require 
any  extended  space  in  this  work.  Lieutenant- 
Governor  Simcoe,  who  had  distinguished  himself 
during  the  war  for  independence  as  a  commander  of 
the  Queen's  Rangers,  was  a  skilful  and  able  admin- 
istrator, who  did  his  best  to  develop  the  country. 
It  was  during  his  regime  that  Toronto,  under  the 
name  of  York,  was  chosen,  by  the  influence  of  Lord 
Dorchester,  as  the  capital  in  place  of  Newark,  which 
was  too  close  to  the  American  frontier,  although 
the  Lieutenant-Governor  would  have  preferred  the 
site  of  the  present  city  of  London,  on  the  River 


310  THE   STORY  OF  CANADA. 

Thames,  then  known  as  La  Tranche.  Mainly 
throuj/li  his  efforts  a  considerable  immiirration  was 
attracted  from  the  United  States.  Many  of  the 
new  settlers  were  loyal  and  favourable  to  British 
institutions,  but  in  the  course  of  time  there  came 
into  the  country  not  a  few  discontented,  restless 
persons,  having  radical  and  republican  tendencies. 
Among  the  important  measures  of  his  administra- 
tion was  an  act  preventing  the  future  introduction 
of  slaves,  and  providing  for  the  freedom  of  children 
of  slaves  then  in  the  province.  Governor  Simcoe 
devoted  his  energy  not  only  to  the  peopling  of  the 
province,  but  to  the  opening  up  of  arteries  of  com- 
munication, of  which  Yonge  and  Dundas  Streets — 
still  well-known  names — were  the  most  noted.  The 
founder  of  an  important  settlement  in  the  west, 
an  eccentric  Irishman  of  noble  ancestry.  Colonel 
Thomas  Talbot,  was  a  member  of  the  Lieutenant- 
Governor's  staff,  and  eventually  made  his  home  in 
the  western  part  of  the  province,  where  he  became 
a  useful  and  influential  pioneer.  Among  the  most 
desirable  immigrants  were  the  Scotch  Highlanders, 
who  settled  and  named  the  county  of  Glengarry, 
and  came  to  the  country  by  the  advice  of  the  ener- 
getic and  able  priest,  Macdonell,  afterwards  the  first 
Roman  Catholic  bishop  of  Upper  Canada.  In  Nova 
Scotia  a  number  of  Scotch  settled  in  Pictou  county 
as  early  as  1/73,  ^"^^  were  followed  in  later  years  by 
manv  others  who  found  homes  in  the  same  district, 
in  Antigonishe  and  Cape  Breton,  where  their  de- 
scendants are  still  greatly  in  the  majority.  In  Prince 
Edward  Island,   Lord  Selkirk,  the  founder  of  the 


REPI^ESENTA  TIVE   L\STlTUTlON<i. 


.VI 


Red  River  settlement,  to  whose  history  I  shall  refer 
in  a  later  chapter,  established  a  colony  of  thrifty 
Scotch  in  one  of  the  deserted    settlements  of   the 


LIEUTENANT-GENERAL    SIMCOE. 


French.  Charlottetown  was  founded  in  thos*^  days 
on  the  bay  first  known  as  Port  La  Joye,  and  ts  now 
a  pleasing  example  of  the  placid  dignity  and  rural 
tranquillity  that  a  capital  may  attain  even  in  these 
restless  modern  times.     In  this  island,  the  seeds  of 


^12  TitE   STORY  OF  CAXADA, 

discontent  were  planted  at  a  very  early  time  by  the 
transfer  of  nearly  all  its  lands  in  one  day  by  ballot 
to  a  few  English  landlords,  whose  absenteeism  long 
retarded  its  adv^ancement,  and  whose  claims  of 
proprietorship  were  not  settled  until  after  the  con- 
federation of  the  provinces. 

The  political  condition  of  the  provinces  from  the 
beginning  of  the  nineteenth  century  began  to  assume 
considerable  importance  according  as  the  assemblies 
became  discontented  with  their  relatively  small  share 
in  the  government  of  the  country.  In  all  the  prov- 
inces there  was  a  persistent  contest  between  the 
popular  assemiblies  and  prerogative,  as  represented 
by  the  governors,  and  upper  houses  appointed  by 
the  same  authority.  Charles  the  First,  with  all  his 
arrogance,  never  treated  his  parliament  with  greater 
superciliousness  than  did  Sir  James  Craig,  when 
governor-general,  on  more  than  one  occasion  when 
the  assembly  had  crossed  his  wishes.  In  the  absence 
of  a  ministry  responsible  to  the  assembly,  a  conflict 
was  always  going  on  between  that  body  and  the 
representative  of  the  Crown.  The  assembly  began 
now  to  claim  full  control  over  the  taxes  and  reve- 
nues which  belonged  to  the  people  of  the  provinces. 
The  presence  of  judges  in  the  legislature  was  a  just 
cause  for  public  discontent  for  years,  and  although 
these  high  functionaries  were  eventually  removed 
from  the  assembly  they  continued  to  sit  in  the 
upper  house  until  1840.  The  constant  interference 
of  the  Imperial  Government  in  matters  of  purely 
local  concern  also  led  to  many  unfortunate  misun- 
derstandings. 


kEPA'ESEX  TA  77  VE  iNS Tl TU TJOXS,  3 1 3 

In  Lower  Canada,  where  the  population  was  the 
largest,  and  the  racial  distinctions  strongly  accentu- 
ated, the  political  conflict  was,  from  the  outset, 
more  bitter  than  in  other  sections.  The  official 
class,  a  little  oligarchy  composed  exclusively  of  per- 
sons brought  from  the  British  Isles,  treated  the 
French  Canadians  with  a  studied  superciliousness, 
and  arrogated  to  themselves  all  the  important  func- 
tions of  government.  This  element  dominated  the 
executive  and  legislative  councils,  and  practically 
the  governors,  who,  generally  speaking,  had  extreme 
views  of  their  prerogative,  and  were  cognisant  of  the 
fact  that  the  colonial  office  in  England  had  no  desire 
to  entrust  the  Canadian  Government  with  much 
larger  powers  than  those  possessed  by  a  municipal 
organisation.  In  the  assembly  the  French  Canadi- 
ans were  largely  in  the  majority — the  English  ele- 
ment had  frequently  not  more  than  one-fifth  of  the 
total  representation  of  fifty  members.  The  assem- 
bly too  often  exhibited  a  very  domineering  spirit, 
and  attempted  to  punish  all  those  who  ventured 
to  criticise,  however  moderately,  their  proceedings. 
The  editor  of  the  Quebec  Mercury^  an  organ  of  the 
British  minority,  was  arrested  on  this  ground.  Le 
Canadien  was  established  as  an  organ  of  the  French 
Canadian  majority  with  the  motto,  Nos  institutions, 
notre  langue,  et  nos  lois.  By  its  constant  attacks  on 
the  government  and  the  English  governing  class  it 
did  much  harm  by  creating  and  perpetuating  racial 
antagonisms  and  by  eventually  precipitating  civil 
strife.  As  a  result  of  its  attacks  on  the  government, 
the  paper  was  seized,  and  the  printer,  as  well  as  M. 


314  THE  STORY  OF  CANADA, 

Bedard  and  several  other  members  of  the  assembly 
who  were  understood  to  be  contributors  to  its  pages, 
or  to  control  its  opinions,  were  summarily  arrested 
by  the  orders  of  Sir  James  Craig.  Though  some  of 
these  persons  obtained  their  release  by  an  expression 
of  regret  for  their  conduct,  M.  Bedard  would  not 
yield,  and  was  not  released  until  the  Governor- 
General  himself  gave  up  the  fight  and  retired  to 
England  where  he  died  soon  afterwards,  with  the 
consciousness  that  his  conduct  with  respect  to 
Bedard,  and  other  members  of  the  assembly,  had 
not  met  with  the  ai)proval  of  the  Imperial  authori- 
ties, although  he  had  placed  the  whole  case  before 
them  by  the  able  agency  of  Mr.  Ryland,  who  had 
been  secretary  for  years  to  successive  governors- 
general,  and  represented  the  opinions  of  the  ruling 
official  class. 

In  Upper  Canada  there  were  no  national  or  racial 
antipathies  and  rivalries  to  stimulate  political  differ- 
ences. In  the  course  of  time,  however,  antagonism.s 
grew  up  between  the  Tories,  chiefly  old  U.  E.  Loy- 
alists, the  official  class,  and  the  restless,  radical 
element,  which  had  more  recently  come  into  the 
country,  and  now  desired  to  exercise  political  influ- 
ence. Lieutenant-governors,  like  Sir  Francis  Gore, 
sympathised  with  the  official  class,  and  often  with 
reason,  as  the  so-called  radical  leaders  were  not 
always  deserving  of  the  sympathy  of  reasonable 
men.  One  of  these  leaders  was  Joseph  Willcocks, 
for  some  time  sheriff  of  the  Home  district — one  of 
the  four  judicial  divisions  of  the  province — and  also 
the  proprietor  and  editor  of  the  Upper  Canada  Guar' 


kEPRESEXT.  I  TIVE   /XS  TI  TV  TIOXS.  3  I  5 

diau,  the  second  paper  printed  in  Upper  Canada — 
the  first  having  been  the  Upper  Canada  Gazette,  or 
the  Ajueriean  OraeU\  which  appeared  at  Newark  on 
the  18th  April,  1793.  He  was  a  dangerous  agitator, 
not  worthy  of  public  confidence,  but  he  was  able  to 
evoke  some  sympathy,  and  pose  as  a  political  mar- 
tyr, on  account  of  the  ill-advised  conduct  of  the 
majority  of  the  assembly  ordering  his  arrest  for 
expressing  some  unfavourable  opinion  of  their  pro- 
ceedings in  his  paper. 

In  the  maritime  provinces  the  conflict  between  the 
executive  and  the  assemblies  was  less  aggravated 
than  in  the  St.  Lawrence  country,  although  Sir 
John  Wentworth,  the  Lieutenant-Governor  of  Nova 
Scotia,  who  had  been  a  governor  of  New  Hampshire 
before  the  revolution,  had  a  very  exalted  idea  of  the 
prerogative,  and  succeeded  in  having  an  acrimonious 
controversy  with  Mr.  Cottnam  Tonge,  the  leader  of 
the  popular  party,  and  the  predecessor  of  a  far 
greater  man,  Joseph  Howe,  the  father  of  responsible 
government. 

Such,  briefly,  was  the  political  condition  of  the  sev- 
eral provinces  of  British  North  America  when  events 
occurred  to  stifle  discontent  and  develop  a  broader 
patriotism  on  all  sides.  The  War  of  1812  was  to 
prove  the  fidelity  of  the  Canadian  people  to  the 
British  Crown  and  stimulate  a  new^  spirit  of  self- 
reliance  among  French  as  well  as  English  Canadians, 
who  were  to  win  victories  which  are  among  the  most 
briUiant  episodes  of  Canadian  history. 


XXIII. 

THE     WAR     OF     l8l2- 1 8l  5— PATRIOTISM     OF     THE 

CANADIANS. 

At  the  outbreak  of  the  unfortunate  War  of  181 2 
the  United  States  embraced  an  immense  territory 
extending  from  the  St.  Lawrence  valley  to  Mexico, 
excepting  Florida — which  remained  in  the  possession 
of  Spain  until  18 19— and  from  the  Atlantic  indefi- 
nitely westward  to  the  Spanish  possessions  on  the 
Pacific  coast,  afterwards  acquired  by  the  United 
States.  The  total  population  of  the  Union  was  up- 
wards of  eight  million  souls,  of  whom  a  million  and 
a  half  were  negro  slaves  in  the  south.  Large  wastes 
of  wild  land  lav  between  the  Canadian  settlements 
and  the  thickly  populated  sections  of  New  England, 
New  York,  and  Ohio.  It  was  only  with  great  diffi- 
culty and  expense  that  men,  munitions  of  war,  and 
provisions  could  be  brought  to  the  frontier  during 
the  contest. 

The  principal  causes  of  the  war  are  quite  intelli- 
gible to  the  historical  student.  Great  Britain  was 
engaged  in  a  great  conflict  not  only  for  her  own 
national  security  but  also  for  the  integrity  of  Eu- 

316 


THE   WAR   OF  I  Si  2- I  Si  S-  317 

rope,  then  dominated  by  the  insatiable  ambition  of 
Bonaparte.  It  was  on  the  sea  that  her  strength 
mainly  lay.  To  ensure  her  maritime  supremacy,  she 
found  it  necessary,  in  the  course  of  events,  to  seize 
and  condemn  neutral  American  vessels  whenever 
there  was  conclusive  evidence  that  their  cargoes 
were  not  the  produce  of  the  United  States,  but  had 
been  actually  bought  in  an  enemy's  colony  and  were 
on  their  way  to  the  mother  country.  But  such  an 
interruption  of  a  commerce,  which  had  been  carried 
on  for  years  at  a  great  profit  by  American  mer- 
chants, was  by  no  means  so  serious  an  affair  as  the 
stoppage  of  American  vessels  on  the  high  seas,  and 
the  forcible  abduction  and  impressment,  by  British 
naval  officers,  of  sailors  who  were  claimed  as  British 
subjects,  even  when  they  had  been  naturalised  in 
the  United  States.  To  such  an  extent  did  Great 
Britain  assert  her  pretensions,  that  one  of  her  frig- 
ates, the  Leopard,  actually  fired  into  the  American 
cruiser  Chesapeake,  off  the  coast  of  the  bay  of  the 
same  name,  and  made  prisoners  of  several  men  who 
were  claimed  as  deserters  from  an  English  man-of- 
war — a  national  outrage  for  which  Great  Britain 
subsequently  made  an  apology  and  gave  a  measure 
of  reparation.  Then  came  the  British  orders  in 
council  which  forbade  American  trade  with  any 
country  from  which  the  British  flag  was  excluded, 
allowed  direct  trade  from  the  United  States  to  Swe- 
den only  in  American  products,  and  permitted 
American  trade  with  other  parts  of  Europe  only  on 
condition  of  touching  at  English  ports  and  paying 
duties.      Napoleon    retaliated    with    decrees    which 


3l8  rilE   STOKY  Oh    CAX.IDA. 

were  |)ractically  futile  while  Kiii^lancl  was  victorious 
on  the  ocean,  but  which  nevertheless  threw  addi- 
tional difficulties  in  the  u.iy  of  the  commerce  of  a 
country  like  the  United  States,  which  possessed 
such  exceptional  facilities  for  its  develoi)ment  from 
its  position  as  a  neutral  nation,  and  its  <^reat  mari- 
time and  mercantile  enterprise.  The  British  meas- 
ures meant  the  ruin  of  an  American  commerce  which 
had  become  very  protltable,  and  the  Washington 
government  attem])ted  to  retaliate  by  declaring  an 
embargo  in  their  own  ports,  which  had  only  the 
result  of  still  further  embarrassing  American  trade. 
In  place  of  this  injudicious  measure  a  system  iA 
non-intercourse  with  both  England  and  France  was 
substituted  as  long  as  either  should  continue  its 
restrictive  measures  against  the  United  States. 
The  Democratic  governing  party  practically  fell 
under  the  influence  of  France,  and  believed,  or  at 
least  professed  to  believe,  that  Napoleon  had  aban- 
doned his  repressive  system,  whe*'.  as  a  matter  of 
fact,  as  the  English  ministry  declared,  it  still  existed 
to  all  intents  and  purposes.  The  Democratic  lead- 
ers, anxious  to  keep  in  power,  fanned  the  flame 
against  England,  whose  naval  superiority  enabled  her 
to  inflict  an  injury  on  American  commercial  inter- 
ests, which  France  was  entirely  powerless  to  do. 
The  Democrats  looked  to  the  South  and  West  for 
their  principal  support  in  holding  power.  In  these 
sections  the  interests  were  exclusively  agricultural, 
while  in  New  England,  where  the  Federalists — the 
peace  party — were  in  the  majority — and  the  war  was 
very  unpopular — the  commercial  and  maritime  ele- 


THE  WAR   OF  iSu    iSlS'  319 

mcnt  lar<(cly  prevailed.  In  the  West  there  had 
been  for  years  an  intense  feehn^  against  En^hmd 
on  acccumt  of  the  fict  that  after  the  definitive  treaty 
of  peace  in  i7tS3,  the  En^Hsh  Government  continued 
to  ()cciii)y  the  Western  posts  and  dependent  terri- 
tory for  thirteen  years,  nominally  on  the  ground  of 
the  harsh  treatment  meted  out  to  the  loyalists  in 
violation  of  its  terms,  and  of  the  non-payment  of 
debts  due  to  iMiglish  creditors,  but  probably  also 
with  the  view  of  kee[)ing  control  of  the  fur  trade. 
The  feeling  prevailed  among  the  western  frontiers- 
men that  the  English  secretly  instigated  Indian 
attacks  on  the  new  settlements,  a  belief  proved  by 
recent  investigations  to  be  groundless.  Even  after 
the  victories  of  Mayne  in  1794,  and  of  Harrison  in 
181 1,  when  the  Indian  })()wer  was  effectively  broken, 
this  bitter  sentiment  still  existed  in  the  West  against 
English  and  Canadians,  and  had  much  influence 
with  the  politicians  who  favoured  the  war. 

The  Southern  leaders.  Clay  of  Kentucky  and  Cal- 
houn of  South  Carolina,  were  most  inimical  to  Eng- 
land, and  succeeded  in  forcing  Madison  to  agree  to 
a  declaration  of  war,  as  a  condition  to  his  re-election 
to  the  presidency.  The  consequence  of  this  suc- 
cessful bargain  vv^as  the  passage  of  a  war  measure  by 
Congress  as  soon  as  Madison  issued  his  message, 
and  the  formal  declaration  of  hostilities  on  the  i8th 
of  June,  1 81 2.  On  the  previous  day,  England  had 
actually  repealed  the  obnoxious  orders  in  council, 
but  it  was  too  late  to  induce  the  war  party  in  the 
United  States  to  recede  and  stop  the  progress  of 
the  forces,   which  were   already   near   the  western 


320  THE   STORY  OF  CAXADA, 

Canadian  frontier  when  the  governor-general  of 
Canada,  Sir  George  Prevost,  a  mditary  man,  heard 
the  news  of  the  actual  declaration  of  hostiHties. 

With  the  causes  of  the  War  of  1812  the  Canadian 
people  had  nothing  whatever  to  do;  it  was  quite 
sufficient  for  them  to  know  that  it  was  their  duty 
to  assist  England  with  all  their  might  and  submit 
to  any  sacrifices  which  the  fortunes  of  war  might 
necessarily  bring  to  a  country  which  became  the 
principal  scene  of  conflict.  Ontario,  then  Upper 
Canada,  with  a  population  of  about  eighty  thousand 
souls,  was  the  only  province  that  really  suffered  from 
the  war.  F'rom  the  beginning  to  the  end  its  soil 
was  the  scene  of  the  principal  battles,  and  a  great 
amount  of  valuable  property  destroyed  by  the  in- 
vading forces.  *'  On  to  Canada  "  had  been  the  cry 
of  the  war  party  in  the  United  States  for  years;  and 
there  was  a  general  feeling  that  the  upper  province 
could  be  easily  taken  and  held  until  the  close  of  the 
struggle,  when  it  could  be  used  as  a  lever  to  bring 
England  to  satisfactory  terms  or  else  be  united  to 
the  Federal  Union.  The  result  of  the  war  showed, 
however,  that  the  people  of  the  United  States  had 
entirely  mistaken  the  spirit  of  Canadians,  and  that 
the  small  population  scattered  over  a  large  region — 
not  more  than  four  hundred  thousand  souls  from 
Sydney  to  Sandwich — was  animated  by  a  stern  de- 
termination to  remain  faithful  to  England. 

No  doubt  the  American  Government  had  been  led 
to  believe  from  the  utterances  of  Willcocks  in  the 
Guardian,  as  the  representative  of  the  discontented 
element  in  Upper  Canada,  that  they  would  find  not 


THE  WAR  OF  l8l2-l8lS'  321 

only  sympathy  but  prob.ibly  some  active  co-opera- 
tion in  the  western  country  as  soon  as  the  armies  of 
the  Republic  appeared  on  Canadian  soil  and  won,  as 
they  confidently  ex[)ected,  an  easy  victory  over  the 
small  force  which  could  be  brought  to  check  inva- 
sion and  defend  tlie  province.  General  Hull's  proc- 
lamation, when  he  crossed  the  Detroit  River  at  the 
commencement  of  hostilities,  was  so  much  evidence 
of  the  belief  that  was  entertained  in  the  United 
States  with  regard  to  the  fealty  of  the  Canadians. 
Willcocks  proved  himself  a  disloyal  man,  for  he 
eventually  joined  the  American  forces  and  fell  fight- 
ing against  the  country  which  he  and  a  very  small 
disaffected  class  would  willingly  have  handed  to 
a  foreign  invader.  The  forces  at  the  disposal  of 
the  Canadian  authorities  certainly  appeared  to  be 
inadequate  for  the  defence  of  a  country  with  so  long 
and  exposed  a  frontier.  In  the  provinces  of  Canada 
there  were,  in  1812,  only  four  thousand  five  hundred 
regular  troops,  and  of  these  hardly  one-third  were 
stationed  above  Montreal.  The  Canadian  militia, 
however,  rallied  with  extraordinary  readiness  to  the 
call  of  the  authorities.  The  majority  of  the  loyal 
population  that  had  come  into  the  country  had  been 
engaged  in  military  services,  and  even  the  old  set- 
tlers, who  were  exempted  from  active  duty,  volun- 
tarily came  forward,  and  exercised,  as  General 
Sheaffe,  said,  **  a  happy  influence  on  the  youth  of 
the  militia  ranks."  The  legislative  bodies  of  all  the 
provinces  responded  liberally  to  the  call  of  the  exec- 
utive and  placed  at  the  disposal  of  the  government 

all  their  resources.      Army  bills  were  issued   to  a 
31 


322  /7/A    S'/VA'V  Oh    CAXADA. 

lar^c  amount,   .iiul   found  a  most  v.iliiablc  currency 
throu^'lunit  the  war. 

During  the  first  year  of  the  Wiir,  tliere  was  a  con- 
tinuous record  of  success  for  C.mada.  J" he  key  to 
the  upper  hikes.  MicliilHniackinac.  was  c.iptured  and 
heUl  b\'  a  small  force  of  ICnLrh^li  le^ulars  and  Cana- 
dian  voya^eurs.  The  immediate  consequence  of 
this  victory  was  to  win  the  confidence  and  aUiance 
of  the  western  Indians,  then  led  by  Tecumseh,  the 
famous  Sh.iwanoese  chief,  who  had  l)een  driven  from 
Tippecanoe  b\-  (ieneral  Harrison.  riien  followetl 
the  ca{)itulation  of  General  Hull  and  his  arnu',  who 
had  invaded  Canada  and  were  afterwards  forcetl  to 
retreat  to  Detroit,  where  thev  surrendered  to  Gen 
eral  Brock  with  a  much  inferior  force.  Bv  ^his 
capitulation,  which  led  to  the  disgrace  and  near!}'  i.'^ 
the  execution  (^f  Mull  on  his  retu»-n  to  his  own  com'i- 
trv,  the  whole  territorv  of  Miehi</an,  over  two  thou- 
sand  five  hundred  troops,  and  a  lar^e  cpiantiiy  of 
munitions  of  war  and  provisions  fell  into  the  po.'>es- 
sion  of  the  British.  The  next  important  event  of 
this  memorable  year  was  the  defeat  of  the  attempt 
of  Van  Rensselaer  to  occupy  Queenston  Heights, 
with  the  object  of  establishing  there  a  base  of  future 
operations  against  Upper  Canada.  The  Americans 
were  routed  with  great  loss  and  many  of  the  men 
threw  themselves  down  the  precipice  and  were 
drowmed  in  the  deep  and  rapid  river.  At  the  begin- 
ning of  the  battle,  General  Brock  was  unhappily 
slain  while  leading  his  men  up  the  heights,  and  the 
same  fate  befell  his  chivalrous  aide-de-camp,  Colonel 
McDonell,  the  attorney-general  of  the  province.     It 


MAJOR-CFAKRAL   BROCK. 


323 


324  THE   SrORY  OF  CANADA. 

was  left  for  General  SlK^affe  to  coni[)lete  the  victory, 
which  gave  many  prisoners  to  the  Kn<^Hsh  force,  and 
drove  the  remainder  of  the  beaten  American  army 
across  the  beautiful  river.  General  Smyth,  a  most 
incom[)etent  man,  who  succeeded  to  the  command 
of  the  .American  army  on  tlie  resi^^iiation  of  Van 
Rensselaer,  subsequently  .it tempted  to  storm  and 
carry  Fort  Erie,  but  Colonel  Bisshopp  successfully 
held  this  important  post,  which  controlled  the  outlet 
of  Lake  Erie  into  the  Nia<^ara  River.  When  the 
campaign  closed,  in  i(Si2,  Canada  was  free  from  the 
invader,  chiefly  through  the  energy  and  sagacity 
with  which  the  irallant  General  Brock  had  made  his 
preparations  to  repel  invasion. 

In  181 3  the  campaign  commenced  with  a  signal 
victory  by  General  Procter,  who  was  in  conmiand  at 
Djtroit,  over  a  considerable  American  force  at 
Frenrhtovv'n,  on  the  Raisin  River,  under  the  com- 
mand of  Hri<{adier  Winchester.  Then  came  a  sue- 
cessful  attack  byCoionel  McDonnell  on  Ogdensburgh 
(La  Presentation  of  the  French  regime),  in  retalia- 
tion for  raids  on  Gananoque  and  Elizabethtown,  sub- 
sequently named  Brockville — now  a  beautiful  city 
near  the  Thousand  Isles — in  honour  of  the  gallant 
soldier  who  perished  on  the  heights  of  Queenston. 
Commodore  Chauncey,  in  command  of  a  small 
American  fleet  organised  at  Sackett's  Harbour,  an 
important  base  of  naval  and  military  operations  for 
the  Americans,  attacked  the  little  capital  of  York, 
now  Toronto,  which  was  evacuated  by  General 
Sheaffe,  then  administrator  of  the  government, 
who    retired    to    Kingston,    the  strongest  position 


THE  WAR  OF  I  Si  2-1 8 1  j.  325 

to  the  west  of  Montreal.  The  invaders  burnt  the 
legislative  and  other  public  buildings.  The  small 
library  and  public  records  were  not  even  spared  by 
the  pillaging  troops.  No  precautions  had  been 
taken  by  Sheaffe  to  improve  defences  which  at 
the  best  were  of  little  strength.  During  the  sum- 
mer, the  American  army  was  so  much  superior  to 
the  English  forces  that  they  were  able  to  occui)y 
the  whole  Niagara  frontier  from  Fort  Erie  to  Fort 
George,  both  of  which  were  captured  by  General 
Dearborn.  Major-General  Vincent,  the  I'^nglish 
commander,  was  compelled  to  retire  to  Burling- 
ton Heights,  overlooking  the  present  city  of  Hamil- 
ton. Sir  George  Prevost,  who  proved  himself  a 
most  irresolute  and  incapable  commander-in-chief, 
retre  .ed  ignt)miniously  from  Sackett's  Harbour, 
althtjugh  Commodore  Chauncey  and  his  fleet  were 
absent  and  the  post  was  defended  by  only  a  small 
garrison.  This  discreditable  failure,  which  cannot 
be  in  any  way  excused,  was  soon  forgotten  when  the 
news  came  of  the  success  of  Colonel  Harvey,  after- 
wards a  lieutenant-governor  of  the  maritime  prov- 
inces, at  Stoney  Creek,  quite  close  to  Burlington 
Bay.  With  an  insignificant  detachment  from  Vin- 
cent's main  body,  Harvey  succeeded  in  surprising 
at  night  a  large  American  force,  commanded  by 
Brigadiers  Chandler  and  Winder,  both  of  whom,  as 
well  as  one  hundred  officers  and  men,  were  taken 
prisoners.  This  serious  disaster  and  the  approach 
of  Admiral  Yeo's  fleet  from  the  eastward  forced  the 
invading  army  to  retire  to  Fort  George,  where  they 
concentrated  their  strength,  after  abandoning  Fort 


326  THE   STORY  OF  CANADA. 

Erie  and  other  posts  on  the  frontier.  It  was  during 
the  campaii,ni  of  this  year  tiiat  Laura  Secord,  the 
courageous  daughter  of  a  sturdy  loyaHst  stock  which 
has  given  the  name  of  Ingersoll  to  a  Canadian  town, 
afforded  a  memorable  example  of  the  devotion  which 
animated  Canadian  woir  en  in  these  years  of  trial. 
General  Dearborn  had  ordered  Colonel  Hoerstler  to 
surprise  and  .ittack  the  Canadian  outposts  at  Twelve 
Mile  Creek,  nowSt.  Catharine's,  and  at  DeCeu's  farm, 
close  to  the  present  town  of  Thorold.  Lieutenant 
Fitzgibbon,  with  a  picket  of  thirty  men,  was  stationed 
at  De  Ceu's.  A  Canadian  militiaman,  James  Secord, 
who  lived  at  Oueenston,  heard  of  the  proposed 
attack,  but  as  he  had  been  severely  wounded  in  the 
attack  on  Queenston  Heights  in  the  previous  Oc- 
tober, he  was  unable  to  warn  Fitzgibbon.  His  wife, 
a  woman  of  nearly  forty  years,  volunteered  for  the 
hazardous  duty,  and  started  at  dawn  for  a  journey 
of  twenty  miles,  through  dense  woods,  where  the 
paths  were  few  and  h.id  to  be  avoid*^"-  *"or  fear  of 
meeting  American  marauders  or  suspicious  Indians 
who  might  take  her  lor  a  spy.  It  took  her  all  day 
to  reach  her  destination,  where  she  first  disturbed 
an  encampment  of  Indians  who  received  her  with 
yells,  which  dismayed  her  for  the  moment.  How- 
ever, she  was  taken  to  the  commanding  officer,  who 
made  his  arrangements  immediately  to  surprise 
Boerstler,  who  soon  made  his  appearance  with  five 
hundred  men  at  least.  The  Americans  were  forced 
to  surrender  to  what  they  believed  was  a  vastly 
superior  force,  so  cleverly  had  Fitzgibbon  succeeded 
in   deceiving  them.     In   fact,   he  had   only  at  first 


THE   WAR   OF  I8l2-l8l^,  327 

thirty  soldiers,  iind  two  hundred  and  forty  Indians, 
and  when  a  captain  and  twenty  troopers  of  the 
Chippewa  cavalry  came  u[)  Boerstler  was  quite  ready 
to  so  render. 

All  the  successes  in  the  west,  how^ever,  wx're  now 
rendered  worthless  by  the  unfortunate  defeat  at 
Put-in-I^ay  on  Lake  Erie  of  the  English  flotilla 
under  Captain  Barclay,  by  Commodore  Perry,  who 
had  command  of  a  large  number  of  vessels,  with  a 
superior  armament  and  ec^uipment.  The  result  of 
this  victory  was  to  give  the  control  of  Lake  Flrie  and 
of  the  State  of  Michigan  to  the  Americans.  Proc- 
ter retreated  from  Detroit,  and  was  defeated  near 
Moraviantown,  an  Lidian  village,  about  sixty  miles 
from  Sandwich,  by  (reneral  Harrison,  who  liad 
defeated  recumseli  in  the  northwest,  and  now  added 
to  his  growing  fame  by  his  victory  over  the  English 
army,  who  were  badly  generalled  on  this  occasion. 
Tecumseh,  the  faithful  ally  of  the  Canadians,  fell  in 
the  battle,  and  his  body  was  treated  with  every 
indignity,  his  skin,  according  to  report,  having  been 
carried  off  to  Kentucky  as  a  trophy.  Procter  fell 
into  disgrace,  and  was  subsequently  replaced  by 
Colonel  de'  Rottenburg.  On  his  return  to  England, 
Procter  w^as  tried  by  court-martial,  suspended  from 
his  rank  for  six  months,  and  censured  by  the  com- 
mander-in-chief. 

Passing  by  such  relatively  unimportant  affairs  as 
a  successful  attack  on  Black  Rock,  near  Buffalo,  by 
Colonel  Bisshopp,  and  a  second  attack  on  York  by 
Chauncey,  who  took  some  prisoners  and  a  quantity 
of  stores,  we  have  now  to  state  other  facts  in  the 


328  THE   S  '/•(  )A'  y  OF  CA  NA  DA . 

history  of  the  campaign  of  icSi3  which  compensated 
Canada  for  Procter's  disasters  in  the  west.  Ilie 
Americans  had  decided  to  make  an  attack  on  Mon- 
treal by  two  forces — one  comin^^  by  the  St.  Law- 
rence and  tlie  other  by  Lake  Champhiin — which 
v/ere  to  form  a  junction  at  Chateau^uay  on  Lake 
St.  Louis.  Cicneral  Wilkinson,  witli  ei^ht  thousand 
men,  descended  the  riv^er  from  Sackett's  Harbour, 
hmded  behiw  Preset  tt,  and  tlien  proceeded  towards 
Cornw  dl.  Some  two  thousand  five  hundred  men, 
under  Colonel  Boyd,  protected  the  rear  of  the  main 
body,  and  was  compelled  to  fii^ht  a  much  inferior 
force,  under  Colonel  Morrison,  on  Chrystler's  farm, 
near  what  is  now  known  as  Cook's  I'oint  on  the 
north  bank  of  the  St.  Lawrence.  The  Americans 
gave  way  in  all  directions,  and  sustained  a  heavy 
loss.  Boyd  rejoined  Wilkinson  at  the  foot  of  the 
Long  Sault  rapids,  in  the  neighbourhood  of  the 
present  town  of  Cornwall,  and  here  the  news  arrived 
that  General  Hampton  had  receivetl  a  serious 
repulse.  Hampton,  leading  an  army  of  probably 
seven  thousand  men,  had  been  routed  near  the 
junction  of  the  Chateauguay  and  Outprde  rivers  by 
an  insignificant  force  of  Canadian  L'encibles  and 
Voltigeurs  under  Colonel  de  Salaberry,  a  1-^rench 
Canadian  in  the  English  military  service,  with  the 
aid  of  Colonel  McDonnell,  in  command  of  seven  com- 
panies of  Lower  Canadian  militia.  These  combined 
forces  did  not  exceed  nine  hundred  men,  all  French 
Canadians,  with  the  exception  of  Colonel  McDonnell 
and  several  other  ofificers.  Three  hundred  French 
Canadian  Voltigeurs  and  Fencibles  formed  the  front 


THE   WAR   Ol-    iSlJ    iSlj. 


329 


of  the  line,  and  wlicn  the  forniL-r  ^avc  way  to  the 
onslaii<^ht  of  the  four  thousand  men  who  advanced 
a^^ainst    them    Salaberry    held    his    ground   with   a 


■v,^r' '" 

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g|V 

^■^^^^^v 

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IBk 

^^m 

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m 

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^^H^^H 

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j-.-jwy' 

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txT^--  -                 ' .-jr^fficr'r^ 

COLONEL    DK    SALABERRY. 


bufrler,  a  mere  hid,  and  made  him  sound  lustily. 
Colonel  McDonnell,  with  a  remarkably  keen  under- 
standing of  the  situation,  immediately  ordered  his 
buglers  to  play,  and  to  continue  doing  so  while 
they  scattered  in  the  woods.     As  the  woods  echoed 


330  THE   STORY  Of^  CAA'ADA. 

to  the  call  of  the  bu<^les,  to  the  shouts  of  the  sol- 
diers, and  to  the  yells  of  the  Indians,  the  American 
force  halted  as  if  they  were  paralysed.  Then,  believ- 
ing from  the  noises  that  filled  the  forest  in  every 
direction  that  they  were  to  be  attacked  in  front 
and  rear  by  an  overwhelming  force,  they  broke  and 
fled  tumultuouslv.  Salaberrv  and  the  Canadians  had 
won  a  victory  that  has  only  a  few  parallels  in  warlike 
annals.  Hampton  retreated  as  rapidly  as  possible 
to  Plattsburg,  while  Wilkinson  found  his  way  to 
Salmon  River.  These  two  victories  of  Chrystler's 
farm  and  Chateauguay  were  won  almost  entirely  by 
Canadian  prowess  and  skill,  and  must  be  always 
mentioned  among  the  glorious  episodes  of  Canadian 
history. 

Before  the  end  of  the  year.  General  McClure,  in 
command  of  the  American  troops  on  the  Niagara 
frontier,  evacuated  Fort  George,  when  he  heard  of 
the  advance  of  the  English  forces  under  General 
Murray.  McClure  committed  the  cowardly  outrage 
of  destroying  the  town  of  Newark.  All  the  houses 
except  one  were  burned,  and  no  pity  was  shown 
even  to  the  weak  and  helpless  women,  all  of  whom 
were  driven  from  their  comfortable  houses  and 
forced  to  stand  on  the  snow-clad  earth,  while  they 
saw  the  flames  ascend  from  their  homes  and  house- 
hold treasures.  As  an  act  of  retribution  the  British 
troops  destroyed  all  the  posts  and  settlements  from 
Fort  Niagara  to  Buffalo.  When  the  campaign  of 
1 813  closed.  Lake  Erie  w^as  still  in  the  possession  of 
the  Americans,  but  the  Niagara  district  on  both 
sides  of  the  river  had  been  freed  from  the  American 


THE  WAR  OF  I  Si  2- 1  Si  J.  331 

forces,  and  not  an  inch  of  Canadian  territory  except 
Amherstburg  was  in  possession  of  the  enemy. 

In  the  foUowin^L^  year  the  canipaii^n  commenced 
by  the  advance  of  a  hirge  force  of  .Vmerican  troops 
under  General  Wilkinson  into  Lower  Canada,  but 
they  did  not  get  beyond  Lacolle  Mill,  not  far  from 
Isle  aux  Noix  on  the  Richelieu,  where  they  met 
with  a  most  determined  resistance  from  the  little 
garrison  under  Colonel  Handcock.  Wilkinson  re- 
treated to  Plattsburg,  and  did  not  again  venture 
upon  Canadian  territory.  Sir  Gordon  Drummond 
took  Oswego,  and  succeeded  in  destroying  a  large 
amount  of  public  property,  including  the  barracks. 
The  greatest  success  of  the  year  was  won  in  the 
Niagara  country,  where  the  English  troops  under 
Drummond  and  Riall  had  been  concentrated  with 
the  view  of  opposing  the  advance  of  an  American 
army  into  Upper  Canada.  The  Americans  occupied 
Fort  Erie,  and  Riall  sustained  a  repulse  at  Street's 
Creek — now  known  as  Usher's — near  Chippewa, 
although  General  Brown,  who  was  in  command  of  a 
much  superior  force,  did  not  attempt  to  follow  up 
his  advantage,  but  allowed  the  English  to  retreat  to 
Fort  George.  Then  followed,  on  the  25th  of  July, 
the  famous  battle  of  Lundy's  Lane,  where  the  Eng- 
lish regulars  and  Canadian  militia,  led  by  General 
Drummond,  fought  from  six  in  the  evening  until 
midnight,  a  formidable  force  of  American  troops, 
commanded  by  General  Brown  and  Brigadiers  Rip- 
ley, Porter,  and  Scott — the  latter  the  future  hero  of 
the  Mexican  war.  The  darkness  through  this  hotly 
contested  engagement  was  intense,  and  the  English 


33-  THE  STORY  or  cax.ida. 

more  than  once  sccnicd  on  the  point  of  yielding  to 
sheer  exhaustion  as  they  contested  every  foot  of 
ground  against  (A  erpowering  numbers  of  well  han- 
dled troops.  The  undaunted  courage  and  persist- 
ence of  the  l^ritisli  and  Canadian  soldiery  won  the 
battle,  as  the  Americans  retired  from  the  field, 
though  with  a  remarkable  perversion  of  the  facts 
this  memorable  exent  is  even  claimed  by  some 
American  writers  as  a  success  on  their  side.  This 
was  the  last  great  fight  of  the  war,  and  will  be 
always  cited  by  Canadians  as  illustrating  the  mettle 
of  their  own  militi.i  in  old  times, 

Drummond  did  not  win  other  successes,  and  even 
failed  to  capture  Vovi.  T^rie.  The  .American  army, 
howev^er,  did  not  make  another  acKance  into  the 
country  while  he  kept  it  so  well  guarded.  Eric  was 
eventually  evacuated,  while  the  Americans  concen- 
trated their  strensjth  at  Buffalo.  Prairie  du  Chien' 
on  the  Mississij^pi  was  captured  in  this  same  summer 
by  the  English,  and  the  Americans  were  repulsed  in 
an  attempt  to  seize  the  fort  at  jMichillimackinac.  In 
eastern  Canada  there  was  no  such  record  of  \ictory 
to  show  as  Drummond  and  his  officers  had  made  in 
the  west.  Prevost  again  gave  a  signal  proof  of  his 
incapacity.  His  fleet  sustained  acom.plete  defeat  on 
Lake  Champlain,  and  so  great  was  his  dismay  that 
he  ordered  the  retreat  to  Montreal  of  a  splendid 
force  of  over  ten  thousand  troops,  largely  composed 
of  peninsula  veterans,  though  Plattsburg  and  its 
garrison  must  have  fallen  easily  into  his  hands  had 
he  been  possessed  of  the  most  ordinary  resolution. 
This  retreat  was  confessv.  dly  a  disgrace  to  the  Eng- 


MONUMENT   AT   LUNDY's   LANE. 


333 


334  THE   STORY  or  CAXADA. 

li.sh  arniy,  which  C.m.uli.ui  and  Kni^hsh  writers 
must  always  record  with  a  fccHn<^  of  contempt  for 
Prevost. 

It  is  not  necessary  to  dwell  at  any  length  on  other 
features  of  this  war.  The  American  navy,  small 
though  it  was,  won  several  successes  mainly  through 
the  superiority  of  their  vessels  in  tonnage,  crew,  and 
armament.  The  memorable  fight  between  the  Brit- 
ish frigate  S/iaiiiioft,  under  Captain  Brok'e,  and  the 
United  States  frigate  Chesapeake,  under  Captain 
Lawrence,  off  Massachusetts  Ba)',  illustrates  ecpially 
the  courage  of  J^ritish  and  American  sailors — of  men 
belonging  to  the  same  great  stock  w  hich  has  won  so 
many  victories  on  the  sea.  Tlie  two  ships  were 
equally  matched,  and  after  a  sharp  contest  of  a 
quarter  of  an  hour  the  Chesapeake  was  beaten,  but 
not  until  Captain  Lawrence  was  fatally  wounded 
and  his  victorious  adversary  also  severely  injured. 
During  the  war  Nova  Scotia  and  the  other  maritime 
provinces  were  somewhat  harassed  at  times  by 
American  privateers,  but  the  presence  of  a  large 
fleet  constantly  on  their  coasts — Halifax  being  the 
rendezvous  of  the  British  navy  in  American  waters 
— and  the  hostility  of  New  England  to  the  war  saved 
these  sections  of  British  America  from  inv^asion. 
On  the  other  hand,  all  the  important  positions  on 
the  coast  of  Maine  from  the  Penobscot  to  the  St. 
Croix,  were  attacked  and  occupied  by  the  English. 
The  w^hole  American  coast  during  the  last  year  of 
the  war  was  blockaded  by  the  English  fleet  with  the 
exception  of  New  England  ports,  which  were  open 
to  neutral  vessels.     The  public  buildings  of  Wash- 


THE  iVAK  OF  /S/j-/Srj.  335 

incrton,  the  federal  c.ipital,  were  destroved  bv  an 
I^iiL^lish  army,  in  retaliation  for  tlie  biirninj^  of  N'ork, 
Newark,  and  Mora\iantown.  The  attempt  to  take 
Haltimore  failed,  and  a  bold  man  from  Tennessee, 
Andrew  Jackson — in  later  years  President — drove 
Pakenham  from  Xew  Orleans.  The  takini;  of  Mo- 
bile by  British  ships  was  the  clositv^  incident  of  the 
war  on  the  Atlantic  coast.  In  fact  peace  was  hap- 
])ily  declared  by  the  Treaty  of  (ihent  on  the  24th 
December,  1 8 14,  or  a  fortnij^dit  before  the  defeat  of 
the  Knglish  at  New  Orleans.  The  two  nations 
gladly  came  to  terms:  It  is  cpiestionable  if  the  heart 
of  either  was  ever  deej)Iy  enlisted  in  this  unhapf)y 
war  which  shoidd  never  ha\'e  been  fought  between 
peoples  so  closely  connected  by  lan<;uaL^e  and  race. 
It  was  mainly  a  war  of  Western  and  Southern  poli- 
ticians, and  when  it  ended  New  Kiij^land,  whose 
interests  had  been  so  seriously  affected,  was  showing 
signs  of  serious  restlessness  which  had  broken  out 
in  the  Hartford  convention,  and  might  have  even 
threatened  the  integrity  of  the  Union. 

Although  the  war  ended  without  any  definite 
decision  on  the  questions  at  issue  between  .he 
United  States  and  Great  Britain,  the  privileges  of 
neutrals  were  practically  admitted,  and  the  extreme 
pretensions  of  Great  Britain  as  to  the  right  of  search 
can  never  again  be  asserted.  One  important  result 
of  the  war,  as  respects  the  interests  of  Canada,  was 
the  re-opening  of  the  question  of  the  British  Ameri- 
can fisheries.  Certain  privileges  extended  by  the 
Treaty  of  1783  to  American  fishermen  on  the  coasts 
of  British  North  America  were  not  again  conceded, 


33^  THE    STORY  OF  CANADA. 

and  the  convention  of  1818,  which  followed  the 
peace  of  18 15,  is  the  basis  of  the  rights  which  Cana- 
dians have  always  maintained  in  disputes  between 
themselves  and  the  United  States  as  tc  the  fisheries 
on  their  coasts.  Looking,  however,  to  its  general 
results,  the  war  gave  no  special  advantages  to  the 
Canadian  people.  When  peace  was  proclaimed  not 
an  inch  of  Canadian  territory,  except  the  village  of 
Amherstburg,  was  held  by  the  American  forces. 
On  the  other  hand,  Great  Britain  occupied  the 
greater  part  of  the  sea-board  of  Maine,  and  her  flag 
flew  over  Michillimackinac,  tli€  key  to  the  North- 
west. Had  British  statesmen  seized  this  oppor- 
tunity of  settling  finally  the  western  boundary  of 
New  Brunswick,  Canada  would  have  obtained  a  ter- 
ritory most  useful  to  the  commercial  development 
of  the  present  Dominion.  England,  however,  was 
very  desirous  of  ending  the  war — perhaps  the  humil- 
iating aiTair  at  Plattsburg  had  some  effect  on  the 
peace — and  it  was  fortunate  for  the  provinces  that 
they  were  allowed  in  the  end  to  control  their  most 
valuable  fisheries. 

The  people  of  Canada  will  always  hold  in  grateful 
recollection  the  names  of  those  men  who  did  such 
g.>od  service  for  their  country  during  these  momen- 
tous years  from  1812  to  181 5.  Brock,  Tecumseh, 
Morrison,  Salaberry,  McDonnell,  Fitzgibbon,  and 
Drummond  are  among  the  most  honourable  names 
in  Canadian  history.  Englishmen,  Scotchmen, 
Irishmen,  Canadians,  Indians,  were  equally  conspic- 
uous in  brilliant  achievement.  \  stately  monument 
overlooks  the  noble  river  of  ti.:.  Niagara,  and  recalls 


THE  WAR   OF  I  Si  2- 1  Si ^. 


337 


the  services  of  the  gallant  soldiers,  Brock  and  Mc- 
Donell,  whose  remains  rest  beneath.  A  beautiful 
village,  beyond  which  stretches  historic  Lundy's 
Lane,  recalls  the  name  and  deeds  of  Drummond. 
As  the  steamers  pass  up  and  down  the  St.  Lawrence 
they  see  on  the  northern  bank  the  obelisk  which  the 
Canadian  Government  has  raised  on  the  site  of  the 
battlefield  where  Morrison  defeated  Boyd.  On  the 
meadows  of  Chateauguay,  another  monument  has 
been  erected  by  the  same  national  spirit  in  honour 
of  the  victory  won  by  a  famous  representative  of  the 
French  Canadian  race,  who  proved  how  courage- 
ously French  Canadians  could  fight  for  the  new 
regime  under  which  they  were  then,  as  now,  so 
happy  and  prosperous. 


23 


XXIV. 

POLITICAL   STRIFE   AND    REBELLION. 

(i  8 1 5-1 840.) 

The  history  of  the  twenty-five  years  between  the 
peace  of  181 5  and  the  union  of  the  Canadas  in  1840, 
illustrates  the  folly  and  misery  of  faction,  when  in- 
tensified by  racial  antagonisms.  In  Lower  Canada 
the  difficulties  arising  from  a  constant  contest  for 
the  supremacy  between  the  executive  and  legislative 
authorities  were  aggravated  by  the  fact  that  the 
French  Canadian  majority  dominated  the  popular 
house,  and  the  English-speaking  minority  controlled 
the  government.  "  I  found,"  wrote  Lord  Durham, 
in  1839,  *  t^^'o  nations  warring  in  the  bosom  of  a 
single  state;  I  found  a  struggle  not  of  principles  but 
of  races."  It  is  true  that  some  Englishmen  were 
found  fighting  for  popular  liberties  on  the  side  of  the 
French  Canadian  majority.  Mr.  John  Neilson,  who 
was  for  years  editor  of  the  Quebec  Gazette,  was  a 
friend  of  the  French  Canadians,  and  in  close  sym- 
pathy with  the  movement  for  the  extension  of  pub- 
lic rights,  but  he  was  never  prepared  to  go  beyond 

338 


POLITICAL    6  7Vv'//'/i    AiWD   REBELLION,         339 

the  legitimate  limits  of  constitutional  agitation  and 
threaten  British  connexion.  On  the  other  hand, 
Dr.  Wolf  red  Nelson,  descended  from  a  loyalist 
stock,  was  one  of  the  leaders  of  the  majority  that 
controlled  the  assembly  of  Lower  Canada,  and  did 
not  hesitate  to  join  in  the  rebellion  to  which  his  rash 
and  impetuous  chief,  Louis  Joseph  Papineau,  led 
him  at  last.  But  while  undoubtedly  there  were 
many  persons  among  the  British  people,  who  were 
disgusted  with  the  arrogance  of  some  of  the  govern- 
ing class,  and  discontented  with  the  methods  of 
government,  they  were  gradually  alienated  by  the 
demagogism  of  the  French  Canadian  majority,  who 
did  not  hesitate  to  profess  their  desire  to  make 
French  Canada  exclusively  a  French  dominion. 
The  tyranny  of  the  majority  was  exhibited  in  the 
assembly  by  the  attempt  to  impeach  Cliicf  Justices 
Sewell  and  Monk,  on  charges  w^hich  had  no  justifi- 
cation in  law  or  justice.  Mr.  Robert  Christie,  the 
member  for  Gaspe,  who  subsequently  wrote  a  useful 
history  of  Lower  Canada,  was  expelled  several  times 
because  he  was  believed  to  have  procured  the  dis- 
missal from  the  magistracy  of  some  members  of  the 
assembly  who  were  inimical  to  the  executive  gov- 
ernment. On  the  other  hand,  Lord  Dalhousie,  the 
governor-general,  in  1827,  refused  to  approve  of  the 
election  of  Mr.  Papineau  as  speaker  of  the  assem- 
bly, because  he  had  reflected  in  strong  terms  in  a 
manifesto  on  the  public  conduct  of  the  former.  Mr. 
Louis  J.  Papineau,  the  future  le?der  of  the  rebellion 
in  1837,  was  a  man  of  fine  presence,  gifted  with 
remarkable  powers  of  rhetoric  and  persuasion,  but 


340  THE    STORY  OF   CANADA, 

he  was  entirely  wantiiif;  in  discretion,  and  in  the 
quaHties  which  make  a  ^reat  statesman.  When  the 
assembly  refused  to  reconsider  its  action  and  elect 
another  speaker,  Lord  Dalhousie  prorogued  the  leg- 
islature, which  did  not  again  meet  unt'l  he  was 
recalled  and  sent  to  India  as  commander-in-chief. 
Like  other  governors.  Lord  Dalhousie  attempted  to 
govern  to  the  best  of  his  ability,  and  what  mistakes 
he  committed  arose  from  the  contradictory  and  per- 
plexing instructions  he  received  from  the  officials  in 
Downing  Street,  who  were  quite  incapable  at  times 
of  understanding  the  real  condition  of  affairs  in  the 
province. 

The  disputes  at  last  between  the  contending  par- 
ties in  Lower  Canada  prevented  the  working  of  the 
constitution.  The  assembly  fought  for  years  for 
the  independence  of  Parliament  and  the  exclusive 
control  of  the  civil  list  and  supply.  When  at  last 
the  assembly  refused  to  vote  a  civil  list  and  other 
necessary  expenditures,  the  government  w^ere  obliged 
to  use  the  casual  and  territorial  revenues — such  as 
the  proceeds  of  the  sales  and  leases  of  Crown  lands 
— and  these  funds  were  inadequate  for  the  purpose. 
So  carelessly  were  these  funds  managed  that  one 
receiver-general,  engaged  in  business,  became  a 
heavy  defaulter.  The  governors  dissolved  the  leg- 
islatures with  a  frequency  unparalleled  in  political 
history,  and  w-ere  personally  draw-n  into  the  conflict. 
Public  officials,  including  the  judges,  w^ere  harassed 
by  impeachments.  Bills  were  constantly  rejected 
by  the  legislative  council  on  v  arious  pretexts — some 
of  them  constitutionally  correct — and  the  disputes 


POLITICAL   STRIFE  AND  REBELLION, 


341 


bctvvecMi  the  two  branches  of  the  legislature  eventu- 
ally made  it  impossible  to  pass  even  absolutely  nec- 
essary measures.  Appeals  to  the  home  government 
were  very  common,  and  concessions  were  made  time 


M      .^   '■    *. 


LOUIS  J.    PAPINEAU,   ^T.    70. 


and  again  to  the  assembly.  In  fact,  the  contest  as 
to  the  revenues  and  expenditures  ought  to  have 
closed,  in  a  great  measure,  with  the  abandonment, 
in  1832,  by  the  government  of  every  portion  of  the 


342  THE   STORY  OF  CANADA. 

previously  reserved  rev^enue,  but,  as  Lord  Durham 
pointed  out,  the  assembly,  **  even  when  it  obtained 
entire  control  over  the  public  revenues,"  refused  the 
civil  list  because  it  was  determined  "  not  to  give  up 
its  only  means  of  subjecting  the  functionaries  of 
government  to  any  responsibility."  The  conflict 
was  carried  on  to  the  bitter  end.  It  does  not  ap- 
pear, however,  that  the  majority  in  the  assembly  at 
all  understood  the  crucial  difficulty.  They  devoted 
their  whole  strength  to  attacks  on  the  legislative 
council,  and  to  demands  for  an  elective  body.  The 
famous  ninety-two  resolutions  of  1834,  in  which 
Papineau's  party  set  forth  their  real  or  fancied  griev- 
ances, did  not  contain  a  single  paragraph  laying 
down  the  principles  of  parliamentary  or  responsible 
government  as  worked  out  in  England,  and  ably 
supported  by  the  moderate  Upper  Canadian  Re- 
formers like  Robert  Baldwin.  The  home  govern- 
ment ought  to  have  appreciated  the  gravity  of  the 
situation,  but  they  were  not  yet  prepared  to  intro- 
duce into  these  colonies  the  principles  of  parlia- 
mentary government.  In  1835  they  appointed  a 
commission  to  inquire  into  the  nature  of  the  griev- 
ances and  the  best  method  of  remedying  them. 
The  governor-general.  Lord  Gosford,  was  the  head 
of  this  commission,  but  it  failed  because  Papineau 
and  his  party  were  not  now  prepared  to  listen  to 
moderate  and  conciliatory  counsels.  When  in  1837 
the  assembly  continued  to  refuse  supply  for  the 
payment  of  public  officials,  and  of  the  arrears,  which 
up  to  that  time  amounted  to  nearly  one  hundred 
and  fifty  thousand  pounds  sterling,  Lord  John  Rus- 


POLITICAL   STRItE  AND   KEBELLloX.         343 

sell  carried  in  the  English  House  of  Commons  a 
series  of  resolutions,  rejecting  the  demand  for  an 
elective  legislative  council  and  other  changes  in  the 
constitution,  and  empowering  the  executive  govern- 
ment to  defray  the  expenses  of  the  public  service 
out  of  the  territorial  and  casual  revenues.  This 
action  of  the  imperial  government  increased  the 
public  discontent,  and  gave  an  opportunity  to  Papi- 
neau  and  his  followers  to  declare  that  no  redress  of 
grievances  could  be  obtained  except  by  a  resort  to 
arms.  In  this  year  the  rebellion  broke  out,  but 
before  I  refer  to  it,  it  is  necessary  to  review  briefly 
the  condition  of  things  in  the  other  provinces. 

In  Nova  Scotia  and  New  Brunswick,  the  disputes 
between  the  executive  and  legislative  authorities 
were  characterised  by  much  acrimony,  but  eventu- 
ally the  public  revenues  were  conceded  to  the  as- 
semblies. In  Prince  Edward  Island  the  political 
difificulties  arose  ^rom  the  land  monopoly,  and  the 
efforts  of  the  lieutenant-governors  to  govern  as 
much  as  possible  without  assemblies.  In  these 
provinces,  as  in  Canada,  we  find — to  cite  Lord  Dur- 
ham— "  representative  government  coupled  with  an 
irresponsible  executive,  the  same  abuse  of  the 
powers  of  the  representative  bodies,  and  the  same 
constant  interference  of  the  imperial  administration 
in  matters  which  should  be  left  W'holly  to  the  pro- 
vincial governments."  In  the  maritime  provinces, 
however,  no  disturbance  occurred,  and  the  leaders 
of  the  popular  party  were  among  the  first  to  assist 
the  authorities  in  their  efforts  to  preserve  the  public 
tranquillity,  and  to  express  themselves  emphatically 
in  favour  of  the  British  connection. 


344  THE  STORY  OF  CANADA. 

In  Upper  Canada  an  official  class  held  within  its 
control  practically  the  government  of  the  province. 
This  class  became  known,  in  the  parlance  of  those 
days,  as  the  *'  family  compact,"  not  quite  an  accu- 
rate designation,  since  its  members  had  hardly  any 
family  connection,  but  there  was  just  enough  ground 
for  the  term  to  tickle  the  taste  of  the  people  for  an 
epigrammatic  phrase.  The  bench,  the  pulpit,  the 
banks,  the  public  offices  were  all  more  or  less  under 
the  influence  of  the  **  compact."  The  public  lands 
were  lavishly  parcelled  out  among  themselves  and 
their  followers.  Successive  governors,  notably  Sir 
Francis  Gore,  Sir  Peregrine  Maitland,  and  Sir  Fran- 
cis Bond  Head,  submitted  first  to  its  influence  and 
allowed  it  to  have  the  real  direction  of  affairs. 
Among  its  most  prominent  members  were  John 
Beverly  Robinson,  for  some  years  attorney-general, 
and  eventually  an  able  chief-justice,  and  the  recipi- 
ent of  a  baronetage;  William  Dummer  Powell,  a 
chief-justice;  John  Henry  Boulton,  once  attorney- 
general  ;  John  Strachan,  the  first  bishop  of  the  Epis- 
copal Church  in  Upper  Canada;  Jonas  Jones,  the 
Sherwoods,  and  other  well-known  names  of  resi- 
dents of  York,  Niagara,  Kingston,  and  Brockville. 

It  was  not  until  1820  that  a  strong  opposition  was 
organised  in  the  assembly  against  the  ruling  bureau- 
cracy. The  cruel  treatment  of  Robert  Gourlay,  an 
erratic  Scotch  land-agent,  by  the  ruling  class  who 
feared  his  exposure  of  public  abuses,  had  much  to 
do  with  creating  a  reform  party  in  the  legislature. 
Gourlay  was  a  mere  adventurer,  who  found  plenty 
of  material  in  the  political  condition  of  the  province 


POLITICAL  ^TklFR  AND  REBELLIOX.         345 

for  obtaining  the  notoriety  that  he  coveted.  In  the 
course  of  some  inquiries  he  made  in  connexion  with 
a  statistical  work  he  published  in  later  years,  he 
touched  on  some  points  which  exposed  the  land 
monopoly  and  other  abuses.  He  was  immediately 
declared  by  the  ''compact"  to  be  a  dangerous  per- 
son, who  must  be  curbed  by  some  means  or  other. 
He  was  tried  on  two  occasions  for  libelling  the  gov- 
ernment, but  acquitted.  Then  his  enemies  conspired 
to  accuse  him  most  unjustly  of  being  a  seditious  and 
dangerous  person,  who  came  under  the  terms  of  an 
alien  act  passed  in  1804.  He  was  arrested  and  kept 
in  prison  for  seven  months.  When  he  was  at  last 
tried  at  Niagara,  the  home  of  Toryism,  he  was  a 
broken-down  man,  hardly  in  full  possession  of  his 
senses.  A  severe  judge  and  prejudiced  jury  had  no 
pity,  and  he  was  forced  to  leave  the  province,  to 
which  he  did  not  return  until  happier  times.  The 
injustice  which  was  meted  out  to  a  man  who  had 
thrown  some  light  on  public  corruption,  stimulated 
the  opponents  of  the  "  family  compact "  to  united 
action  against  methods  so  dangerous  to  individual 
liberty  and  so  antagonistic  to  the  redress  of  public 
grievances. 

The  disputes  between  the  reformers  and  the 
"  family  compact  **  were  aggravated  by  the  "  clergy 
reserves  "  question,  which  was  largely  one  between 
the  Episcopalians  and  the  dissenting  bodies.  This 
question  grew  out  of  the  grant  to  the  Protestant 
Church  in  Canada  of  large  tracts  of  land  by  the  im- 
perial act  of  1 791,  and  created  much  bitterness  of 
feeling  for  a  quarter  of  a  century  and  more.     The 


34^  Till:  STONY  OF  CAP^ADA. 

reformers  found  in  this  question  abundant  material 
for  excitin^^  the  jealo^usies  of  all  the  Protestant  sects 
who  wished  to  see  the  Church  of  England  and  the 
Church  of  Scotland  deprived  of  the  advantages 
which  they  alone  derived  from  this  valuable  source 
of  revenue.  The  British  Government  for  years  were 
on  the  side  of  the  "family  compact,"  whose  lead- 
ing adherents  belonged  to  the  Church  of  England, 
and  who  opposed  every  effort  that  was  made  to  dis- 
pose of  these  lands  for  the  support  of  education  and 
other  public  purposes.  The  Methodists,  who  out- 
numbered the  Church  of  England,  had  for  years 
an  additional  grievance  in  the  fact  that  their  minis- 
ters were  not  allowed  to  solemnise  marriages,  and  it 
was  not  until  1829  that  this  disability  was  removed 
by  the  legislature. 

Among  the  minds  that  dominated  the  "  family 
compact  "  was  the  eminent  divine,  Joim  Strachan, 
who  was  originally  a  Presbyterian,  and  came  to  the 
country  as  a  teacher  at  the  request  of  the  Honour- 
able Richard  Cartwright,  a  prominent  U.  E.  Loyal- 
ist, but  eventually  joined  the  Episcopalian  Church, 
and  became  its  bishop.  Like  his  countryman,  John 
Knox,  he  had  extraordinary  tenacity  of  purpose  and 
desire  for  rule.  He  considered  the  interests  of  the 
Church  as  paramount  to  all  other  considerations. 
He  became  both  an  executive  and  a  legislative 
councillor,  and  largely  moulded  the  opinions  and 
acts  of  the  governing  classes.  It  was  chiefly  through 
his  influence  that  Sir  John  Colborne  established  a 
number  of  rectories  out  of  the  clergy  reserves,  and 
thereby  gave  additional  offence  to  those  religious 


POLITICAL    SI KUE   AM)   RhRELl.lOX.        347 

bodies  who  had  no  .sha»'c  in  these  hinds.  He  hoped 
to  create  a  state  church,  and  the  estabh'shment  of 
King's  College,  aflernards  secularised,  was  a  part  of 
his  ecclesiastical  system.     Eventually  when   King's 


BISHOP   STRACHAN. 


College  became  a  provincial  institution,  open  to  all 
denominations — the  foundation  of  Toronto  Univer- 
sity— he  devoted  all  his  energies  to  the  estab- 
lishment of  Trinity  College,  which  is  the  noblest 
monument  of  the  zealous  prelate. 


348  THE   STORY  OF  CANADA. 

Another  Scotchman,  who  came  to  the  country 
some  years  later  than  the  bishop,  was  WiUiam  Lyon 
Mackenzie,  who  was  always  remarkable  for  his  im- 
pulsiveness and  rashness,  which  led  him  at  last  into 
difficulties  and  wrecked  his  whole  career.  He  had  a 
deep  sense  of  public  wrongs,  and  placed  himself  im- 
mediately in  the  front  rank  of  those  who  were  fight- 
ing for  a  redress  of  undoubted  grievances.  He  was 
thoroughly  imbued  with  the  ideas  of  English  radi- 
calism, and  had  an  intense  hatred  of  Toryism  in 
every  form.  He  possessed  little  of  that  strong  com- 
mon sense  and  power  of  acquisitiveness  which  make 
his  countrymen,  as  a  rule,  so  successful  in  every 
walk  of  life.  When  he  felt  he  was  being  crushed 
by  the  intriguing  and  corrupting  influences  of  the 
governing  class,  aided  by  the  lieutenant-governor, 
he  forgot  all  the  dictates  of  reason  and  prudence, 
and  was  carried  away  by  a  current  of  passion  which 
ended  in  rebellion.  His  journal,  TJic  Colonial  Ad- 
vocate, showed  in  its  articles  and  its  very  make-up 
the  erratic  character  of  the  man.  He  was  a  pungent 
writer,  who  attacked  adversaries  with  great  reckless- 
ness of  epithet  and  accusation.  So  obnoxious  did 
he  become  to  the  governing  class  that  a  number  of 
young  men,  connected  with  the  best  families, 
wrecked  his  office,  but  the  damages  he  recovered  in 
a  court  of  law  enabled  him  to  give  it  a  new  lease  of 
existence.  When  the  "  family  compact  "  had  a 
majority  in  the  assembly,  elected  in  1830,  he  was 
expelled  five  times  for  libellous  reflections  on  the 
government  and  house,  but  he  was  re-elected  by  the 
people,  who  resented  the  wrongs  to  which  he  was 


349 


350  THE   SrOKY  OF  CANADA. 

subject,  and  became  the  first  mayor  of  Toronto,  as 
York  was  now  called.  He  carried  his  grievances  to 
England,  where  he  received  much  sympathy,  even 
in  conservative  circles.  In  a  new  legislature,  where 
the  "  compact*'  were  in  a  minority,  he  obtained  a 
committee  to  consider  the  condition  of  provincial 
affairs.  The  result  was  a  famous  report  on  grievances 
which  set  forth  in  a  conclusive  and  able  manner  the 
constitutional  difficulties  under  which  the  country 
laboured,  and  laid  down  clearly  the  necessity  for 
responsible  government.  It  would  have  been 
fortunate  both  for  Upper  Canada  and  Mackenzie 
himself  at  this  juncture,  had  he  and  his  followers 
confined  themselves  to  a  constitutional  agitation  on 
the  lines  set  forth  in  this  report.  By  this  time  Robert 
Baldwin  and  Egerton  Ryerson,  discreet  and  promi- 
nent reformers,  had  much  influence,  and  were  quite 
unwilling  to  follow  Mackenzie  in  the  extreme  course 
on  which  he  had  clearly  entered.  He  lost  ground 
rapidly  from  the  time  of  his  indiscreet  publication 
of  a  letter  from  Joseph  Hume,  the  English  radical, 
who  had  expressed  the  opinion  that  the  improper 
proceedings  of  the  legislature,  especially  in  expelling 
Mackenzie,  "  must  hasten  the  crisis  that  was  fast 
approaching  in  the  affairs  of  Canada,  and  which 
would  terminate  in  independence  and  freedom  from 
the  baneful  domination  of  the  mother-country." 
Probably  even  Mackenzie  and  his  friends  might  have 
been  conciliated  and  satisfied  at  the  last  moment 
had  the  imperial  government  been  served  by  an  able 
and  discreet  lieutenant-governor.  But  never  did 
the  imperial  authorities  make  a  greater  mistake  than 


POLITICAL   STRIFE  AND  REBEI.IIOX.         33  I 

when  they  sent  out  Sir  Francis  Bond  Head,  uliu  had 
no  political  experience  whatever. 

From  the  beginning  to  the  end  of  his  administra- 
tion he  did  nothing  but  blunder.  He  alienated 
even  the  confidence  of  the  moderate  element  of  the 
Reformers,  and  literally  threw  himself  into  the  arms 
of  the  "  family  compact,"  and  assisted  them  at  the 
elections  of  the  spring  of  1836,  which  rejected  all 
the  leading  men  of  the  extreme  wing  of  the  Re- 
form party.  Mackenzie  was  deeply  mortified  at  the 
result,  and  determined  from  that  moment  to  rebel 
against  the  government  which,  in  his  opinion,  had 
no  intention  of  remedying  public  grievances.  At 
the  same  time  Papineau,  with  whom  he  was  in  com- 
munication, had  made  up  his  mind  to  establish  a 
republic,  unc  nation  Canadicnnc,  on  the  banks  of 
the  St.  Lawrence. 

The  disloyal  intentions  of  Papineau  and  his  fol- 
lowers were  made  very  clear  by  the  various  meetings 
which  were  held  in  the  Montreal  and  Richelieu  dis- 
tricts, by  the  riots  which  followed  public  assem- 
blages in  the  city  of  Montreal,  by  the  names  of 
*'  Sons  of  Liberty  "  and  "  Patriots  "  they  adopted 
in  all  their  proceedings,  by  the  planting  of  "  trees," 
and  raising  of  "  caps  "  of  liberty.  Happily  for  the 
best  interests  of  Canada  the  number  of  P>ench 
Canadians  ready  to  revolt  were  relatively  insignifi- 
cant, and  the  British  population  were  almost  exclu- 
sively on  the  side  of  the  government.  Bishop 
Lartigue  and  the  clergy  of  the  Roman  Catholic 
Church  now  asserted  themselves  very  determinedly 
against  the  dangerous  and  seditious  utterances  of 


352  THE   STORY  OF  C AX  ADA. 

the  leaders  of  the  "  Patriots."  Fortunately  a  reso- 
lute, able  soldier,  Sir  John  Colborne,  was  called  from 
Upper  Canada  to  command  the  troops  in  the  critical 
situation  of  affairs,  and  crushed  the  rebellion  in  its 
very  inception.  A  body  of  insurgents,  led  by  Dr. 
VVolfred  Nelson,  showed  some  courage  at  St.  Denis, 
but  Papineau  took  the  earliest  opportunity  to  find 
refuge  across  the  frontier.  Thomas  Storrow  Brown, 
an  American  by  birth,  also  made  a  stand  at  St. 
Charles,  but  both  he  and  Nelson  were  easily  beaten 
by  the  regulars.  A  most  unfortunate  episode  was 
the  murder  of  Lieutenant  Weir,  who  had  been  cap- 
tured by  Nelson  while  carrying  despatches  from 
General  Colborne,  and  was  butchered  by  some  in- 
surgent habitants,  in  whose  custody  he  had  been 
placed.  At  St.  Eustache  the  rebels  were  severely 
punished  by  Colborne  himself,  and  a  number  burned 
to  death  in  the  steeple  of  a  church  where  they  had 
made  a  stand.  Many  prisoners  were  taken  in  the 
course  of  the  rebellious  outbreak.  The  village  of  St. 
Benoit  and  isolated  houses  elsewhere  were  destroyed 
by  the  angry  loyalists,  and  much  misery  inflicted  on 
all  actual  or  supposed  sympathisers  with  Papineau 
and  Nelson.  Lord  Gosford  now  left  the  country, 
and  Colborne  was  appointed  administrator.  Al- 
though the  insurrection  practically  ended  at  St. 
Denis  and  St.  Charles,  bodies  of  rebels  and  Ameri- 
can marauders  harassed  the  frontier  settlements  for 
some  time,  until  at  last  the  authorities  of  the  United 
States  arrested  some  of  the  leaders  and  forced  them 
to  surrender  their  arms  and  munitions  of  war. 
In  Upper  Canada  the  folly  of  Sir  Francis  Head 


POLITICAL   STRIFE  AND  REBELLION,         353 

would  have  led  to  serious  consequences  had  Mac- 
kenzie and  Rolph  been  capable  of  managing  a  rebel- 
lious movement.  The  Lieutenant-Governor  allowed 
all  the  troops  to  go  to  Lower  Canada,  and  the  capi- 
tal was  entirely  at  the  mercy  of  the  rebels,  had  they 
acted  with  any  spirit  or  energy.  Dr.  Rolph,  a  clever 
intriguer — who  was  to  be  the  president  of  the  new 
republic — was  playing  a  fast  and  loose  game,  and 
temporised  until  the  loyal  forces  from  Hamilton 
were  able  to  advance  to  the  assistance  of  Head. 
Had  tlie  rebels,  who  were  concentrating  at  Mont- 
gomery's tavern  on  Yonge  Street,  marched  imme- 
diately on  the  capital,  it  could  have  been  easily 
captured,  in  consequence  of  the  neglect  of  Head  to 
take  the  most  ordinary  precautions  against  surprise. 
TorontD  was  mainly  saved  by  the  men  of  the  Gore 
district,  led  by  Allan  MacNab,  an  ardent  loyalist, 
afterwards  a  baronet  and  premier  of  Canada.  The 
insurgents,  who  at  no  time  exceeded  eight  hundred 
in  all,  were  routed  at  their  headquarters.  Rolph 
had  previously  thought  it  prudent  to  fly,  and  Mac- 
kenzie soon  followed.  Several  lives  were  lost  during 
this  ^niaitCy  for  it  was  hardly  more,  and  a  consider- 
able number  of  prisoners  taken.  Among  the  latter 
were  Samuel  Lount,  an  ardent  reformer,  the  first  to 
arm  for  the  rebellion,  and  Colonel  Von  Egmond, 
one  of  Napoleon's  soldiers,  the  leader  of  the  "  pa- 
triot army."  Marshall  Spring  Bidwell,  an  able  and 
moderate  leader  of  the  Reformers,  for  some  years 
speaker,  does  not  appear  to  have  taken  any  active 
part  in  the  rebellious  movement,  but  he  availed  him- 
self of  a  warning  given  him  by  Head,  who  wished 


354  THE    STORY  OF  CANADA. 

to  get  rid  of  him  as  quietly  as  possible,  and  hurried 
to  the  United  States,  where  he  renuiiued  for  the 
remainder  of  his  life.  Mackenzie  also  fled  to  the 
Republic,  and  industriously  set  to  work  to  violate 
the  neutrality  of  the  country  by  inciting  bands  of 
ruffians  to  invade  Canada. 

As  in  the  case  of  the  Fenian  invasion  many  years 
later,  the  authorities  of  the  United  States  were  open 
to  some  censure  for  negligence  in  winking  at  these 
suspicious  gatherings  avowedly  to  attack  a  friendly 
country.  The  raiders  seized  an  island  just  above 
Niagara  Falls,  on  the  Canadian  side,  as  a  base  of 
operations,  and  a  steamer,  called  the  Caroline,  was 
freely  allowed  to  ply  between  the  island  and  the 
mainland  with  supplies.  It  became  necessary  to 
stop  this  bold  attempt  to  provide  the  freebooters  on 
Navy  Island  with  the  munitions  of  war,  and  a  Cana- 
dian expedition  was  accordingly  sent,  under  the 
command  of  Colonel  MacNab,  to  seize  the  Caro/iue. 
As  it  happened,  howev^er,  she  was  found  on  the 
American  side ;  but  at  such  a  time  of  excitement 
men  were  not  likely  to  consider  consequences  from 
the  point  of  view  of  international  law.  She  was  cut 
from  her  moorings  on  the  American  side,  her  crew 
taken  prisoners,  one  man  killed,  and  the  vessel  set 
on  fire  and  sent  over  the  Falls  of  Niagara. 

Until  the  month  of  December,  1838,  Upper  Can- 
ada was  disturbed  from  time  to  time  by  bands  of 
marauders,  instigated  by  Mackenzie  and  others,  but 
they  were  easily  beaten  back  by  the  bravery  of  loyal 
Canadian  volunteers  commanded  by  Colonels  Prince, 
MacNab,  Cameron,  Fitzgibbon,  and  other  patriotic 


POLITICAL   STRIFE  AND  REBELLION.         355 

defenders  of  the  country.  Whatever  sympathy  may 
have  been  felt  for  Mackenzie  by  some  persons  at  the 
outset  of  the  insurrection,  wis  aHenated  from  him 
by  his  conduct  after  he  crossed  the  border.  He 
suffered  much  misery  himseK  while  he  remained  in 
the  United  States,  and  was  a  prisoner  for  some 
months  when  the  American  Government  awoke  to 
the  necessity  of  punishing  a  man  who  had  so  nearly 
embroiled  them  with  England  by  his  violation  of  the 
municipal  law  of  a  friendly  territory,  and  of  the 
obligations  that  rest  upon  political  refugees.  When 
Sir  Francis  Bond  Head  was  very  properly  recalled 
from  the  province  whose  affairs  he  had  so  badly  ad- 
ministered, he  was  succeeded  by  Sir  George  Arthur, 
who  had  been  governor  of  Van  Diemen's  Land. 
Both  Samuel  Lount  and  Peter  Matthews  suffered 
death.  Von  Shoultz,  and  a  number  of  Americans 
who  had  invaded  the  country  in  1838,  were  also  ex- 
ecuted, and  some  persons  in  both  provinces  were 
transported  to  New  Holland  or  sent  to  the  peniten- 
tiary, but  in  the  majority  of  cases  the  Crown  showed 
clemency.  The  outbreak  was  an  unfortunate  epi- 
sode in  the  history  of  Canada,  but  it  caused  the 
"  family  compact  "  to  break  up,  and  brought  about 
a  better  system  of  government. 

The  immediate  result  of  the  rebellion  in  Lower 
Canada  was  the  intervention  of  the  imperial  author- 
ities by  the  suspension  of  the  constitution  of  that 
province,  and  the  formation  of  a  special  council  for 
purposes  of  temporary  government.  Lord  Durham, 
a  nobleman  of  great  ability,  who  had  won  distinc- 
tion in  imperial  politics  as  a  Reformer,  was  sent  out 


35^^  /'//A    srOh'V  OF  CAXADA. 

to  Canathi  <is  governor-general  and  high  commis- 
sioner to  inquire  into  mc'  adjust  provincial  difficul- 
ties. This  distinj  'shed  statesman  rem'.ined  at  the 
head  of  affairs  in  the  province  from  the  last  of  May, 
1838,  until  the  3d  of  November  in  the  same  year, 
when  he  returned  to  England,  where  his  ordinance 
of  the  28th  of  June,  sentencing  certain  British  sub- 
jects in  custody  to  transportation  u  ithout  a  form  of 
trial,  and  subjecting  them  and  others  not  in  prison 
to  death  in  case  of  their  return  to  the  country, 
without  permission  of  the  authorities,  had  been 
most  severely  censured  in  England  as  quite  unwar- 
ranted by  law.  By  this  ordinance  Woifred  Nelson, 
Bouchette,  Viger,  and  five  others,  then  in  prison, 
were  banished  to  Bermuda,  while  Papineau,  Cartier, 
O'Callaghan,  Robert  Nelson,  and  others  beyond 
Canadian  jurisdiction,  were  threatened  with  death  if 
they  returned  to  the  province.  Lord  Durham's 
action  was  certainly  in  conflict  with  the  principles  of 
English  law,  but  it  was  an  error  of  judgment  on  the 
side  of  clemency.  He  was  unwilling  to  resort  to  a 
court-martial — the  only  tribunal  open  to  the  au- 
thorities. A  trial  in  the  courts  of  justice  w^as  im- 
practicable under  existing  conditions,  as  it  was 
shown  later.  Lord  Durham  left  Canada  in  deep 
indignation  at  the  manner  in  which  his  acts  had 
been  criticised  in  England,  largely  through  the  influ- 
ence of  Lord  Brougham,  his  personal  enemy.  The 
most  important  result  of  his  mission  was  a  report 
which  was  probably  written  by  Charles  Buller,  his 
secretary,  and  an  exceptionally  able  man,  although 
there  is  no  doubt  that  it  embodied  Lord  Durham's 
own  opinions  and  conclusions. 


Political  stkiie  axd  kebelliox,      357 

Soon  after  the  departure  of  Lord  Durliain,  who 
died  a  few  months  later,  Sir  John  Colborne  became 
governor-general.  He  was  called  upon  to  put  down 
another  rebellious  movement  led  by  Robert  Nelson, 
brother  of  Wolfred  Nelson,  then  in  exile.  At 
Caughnawaga,  Montarville  Mountain,  Beauharnois, 
and  Odelltown  the  insurgents  made  a  stand  from 
time  to  time,  but  were  soon  scattered.  Bands  of 
marauders  inflicted  some  injury  upon  loyal  inhabi- 
tants near  the  frontier,  but  in  a  few  months  these 
ciminal  attempts  to  disturb  the  peace  of  the  prov- 
ince ceased  entirely.  The  government  now  decided 
to  make  an  example  of  men  who  had  not  appre- 
ciated the  clemency  previously  shown  their  friends. 
Twelve  men  were  executed,  but  it  was  not  possible 
to  obtain  a  verdict  from  a  jury  against  the  murderers 
of  Weir  and  Chartrand  -the  latter  a  French  Cana- 
dian volunteer  murdered  under  circumstances  of 
great  brutality  while  a  prisoner. 

The  rebellion  opened  the  eyes  of  the  imperial 
government  to  the  gravity  of  the  situation  in  Can- 
ada, and  the  result  of  Lord  Durham's  report  was 
the  passage  of  an  imperial  act  reuniting  the  prov- 
inces into  one,  with  a  legislature  of  two  houses. 
The  constitutional  act  of  1 791,  which  had  separated 
French  and  English,  as  far  as  possible,  into  two  sec- 
tions, was  clearly  a  failure.  An  effort  was  now  to 
be  made  to  amalgamate,  if  possible,  the  two  races. 
The  two  provinces  were  given  an  equal  representa- 
tion in  one  legislature,  and  the  French  language 
was  placed  in  a  position  of  inferiority,  compared 
with  English  in  parliamentary  and  official  proceed- 


3S^  TlfE   STONY  Oh    CAXADA. 

ings  and  documents.  At  the  same  time  the  British 
Government  reco<^nised  the  necessity  of  ^ivin^^  a 
larj^er  expansion  of  local  self-government. 

Diirin;^  the  period  of  which  I  am  writing  Canada 
had  j^iven  evidences  of  material,  social,  and  intellec- 
tual progress.  With  the  close  of  the  War  of  1812, 
and  the  downfall  of  Napoleon,  larj;e  bodies  of 
immii;rants  came  into  the  province  and  settled  some 
of  the  finest  districts  of  Upper  and  Lower  Canada. 
Scotch  from  the  highlands  and  islands  of  Scotland 
continued  until  1S20  to  flock  into  Nova  Scotia  and 
other  maritime  provinces.  Althou<j[h  the  immif^ra- 
tion  had  been  naturally  stopped  by  the  troubles  of 
1836  and  1838,  the  population  of  Canada  had  in- 
creased to  over  a  million  of  souls,  of  whom  at  least 
four  hundred  and  fifty  thousand  were  PVench  Cana- 
diai^s.  The  Rideau,  Lachine,  and  Welland  Canals 
date  from  this  period,  and  were  the  commencement 
of  that  noble  system  of  artificial  waterways  that 
have,  in  the  course  of  time,  enabled  large  steamers 
to  come  all  the  way  from  Lake  Superior  to  tide- 
water." \\\  1833  the  Rovitl  Williain,  entirely  pro- 
pelled by  steam,  crossed  the  ocean — the  pioneer  in 
ocean  steam  navigation.  A  few  years  later  Samuel 
Cunard,  a  native  Nova  Scotian,  established  the  line 
that  has  become  so  famous  in  the  world's  maritime 
history.  In  Lower  Canada  the  higher  education 
was  confined  to  the  Quebec  Seminary,  and  a  few 
colleges  and  institutions,  under  the  direction  of  the 

*  Governor  Haldimand  first  established  several  small  canals  be- 
tween Lakes  Saint  Louis  and  Saint  Francis,  which  were  used  for 
some  years. 


rOI.ITlCAL   SlRlFE  AND  REBEtJION. 


359 


Roman  Catholic  clcr<^^y  and  communities.  Among 
tlic  /iii/'ifttnts  ^^(.Mic rally  there  were  no  schools,  and 
the  ^reat  majority  could  neither  read  nor  write.     In 


JUDGE   HALIBURTON  (*'  SAM  SI.ICK  "). 

Upper  Canada  high  schools  for  the  education  of  the 
upper  classes  were  established  at  a  very  early  day, 
and  the  Cornwall  Grammar  School,  under  the  super- 
intendence of  Dr.  John  Strahan,  for  some  years  was 


360  THE  SrORY  OF  CANADA, 

the  resort  of  the  provincial  aristocracy.  Upper 
Canada  Collej^e  dates  from  these  early  times.  Hut 
in  1S3S  there  were  only  twenty-four  thousand  chil- 
dren at  school  out  of  a  total  population  of  ft>ur  hun- 
dred thousand.  In  the  maritime  provinces  things 
were  not  much  better,  but  in  Nova  Scotia  the  foun- 
dation of  King's, — the  oldest  university  in  Canada — 
Dalhousie,  and  Acadia  Colleges,  as  well  as  Tictou 
Academy,  shows  the  deep  interest  that  was  taken  in 
higher  education.  In  all  the  provinces  there  was  an 
active  and  even  able  newspaper  press,  although  its 
columns  were  too  much  disfigured  by  invective  and 
personalities.  In  1S36  there  were  at  least  forty 
papers  printed  in  Upper  Canada  alone.  The  names 
of  Cary,  Neilson,  Mackenzie,  Parent,  Howe,  and 
Young  are  among  the  names  of  eminent  journalists. 
It  was  only  in  the  press,  in  the  pulpit,  at  the  bar, 
and  in  the  legislature  that  we  can  look  for  evidences 
of  intellectual  development.  The  only  original 
literary  works  of  importance  were  those  of  Judge 
Haliburton,  who  had  already  giv^en  us  the  clever, 
humorous  creation  of  "  Sam  Slick,"  and  also  writ- 
ten an  excellent  history  of  Nova  Scotia.  In  the 
happy  and  more  prosperous  times  that  follow^ed  the 
union  of  1840,  and  the  establishment  of  political 
liberty,  intellectual  development  kept  pace  with  the 
progress  of  the  country  in  wealth  and  population. 


XXV. 

RESPONSIBLE    GOVERNMENT    AND    ITS    RESULTS — 

KKDLkAL    UNION— RELATIONS   BETWEEN 

CANADA   AND   THE   UNITED   STATES. 

(1 839- 1 867.) 

The  passage  of  the  Union  Act  of  1840  was  the 
commencement  of  a  new  era  in  the  constitutional 
history  of  Canada  as  well  as  of  the  other  provinces. 
The  most  valuable  result  was  the  admission  of  the 
all-important  principle  that  the  ministry  advising  the 
governor  should  possess  the  confidence  of  the  rep- 
resentatives of  the  people  assembled  in  parliament. 
Lord  Durham,  in  his  report,  had  pointed  out  most 
forcibly  the  injurious  consequences  of  the  very  oppo- 
site system  which  had  so  long  prevailed  in  the  prov- 
inces. His  views  had  such  influence  on  the  minds 
of  the  statesmen  then  at  the  head  of  imperial  affairs, 
that  Mr.  Poulett  Thomson,  when  appointed  gover- 
nor-general, received  her  Majesty's  com.mands  to 
administer  the  government  of  the  united  provinces 
**  in  accordance  with  the  well-understood  wishes  and 
interests  of  the  people,"  and  to  employ  in  the  pub- 

361 


3^2  THE    STORY   OF  CAXADA, 

lie  service  only  '*  those  persons  who,  by  their  posi- 
tion and  character,  have  obtained  the  general 
confidence  and  esteem  of  the  inhabitants  of  the 
province."  During  the  hrst  session  of  the  Canadian 
legislature  the  assembly  passed  certain  resolutions 
which  authoritatively  expressed  the  views  of  the 
supporters  of  responsible  government. 

Nevertlieless,  during  the  six  years  that  elapsed 
after  the  passage  of  this  formal  expression  of  the 
views  of  the  large  majority  of  the  legislature,  *'  Re- 
sponsible Government  "  did  not  always  obtain  in 
the  fullest  sense  of  the  phrase,  and  not  a  few  mis- 
understandings arose  between  the  governors  and  the 
supporters  of  the  principle  as  to  the  manner  in  which 
it  should  be  worked  out.  In  Canada  Lord  Metcalfe, 
who  succeeded  Haron  Svdenham — the  title  of  Mr. 
Poulett  Thomson — on  his  sudden  death  at  Kingston 
in  1 84 1,  brought  about  a  political  crisis  in  conse- 
quence of  his  contention  for  the  privilege — utterlv 
inconsistent  with  the  principles  of  responsible  gov- 
ernment— of  making  appointments  to  ofifice  without 
the  advice  of  his  council.  In  Nova  Scotia  Sir  Colin 
Campbell,  who  was  more  suited  to  the  military 
camp  than  to  the  political  arena,  endeavoured  to 
throw  obstacles  in  the  way  of  the  new  system,  but 
he  was  soon  recalled.  His  successor,  Lord  Falk- 
land, a  vain  nobleman,  was  an  unhappy  choice  of 
the  colonial  ofTice.  He  became  the  mere  creature 
of  the  Tory  party,  led  by  James  W.  Johnston,  a 
very  able  lawyer  and  eloquent  speaker,  and  the 
open  enemy  of  the  liberals  led  by  Joseph  Howe, 
William  Young,  James  Boyle  Uniacke,  and  Herbert 


K'KSPoxs/iu.K  aoif-KX.y/:Xr. 


iC'i 


Huntington.  The  imperial  government  recognised 
their  mistake,  and  rephiced  I.ord  Falkhmd  by  Sir 
John  Harvey,  the  hero  of  Stoney  Creek  in  1S13, 
who    had    done    much    to    estabhsh    parliamentary 


JOSEPH    HOWE  IN  1865. 

government  in  New  Brunswick.  In  1847  Lord 
Elgin — the  son-in-law  of  Lord  Durham — was  ap- 
pointed governor-general,  and  received  positive 
instructions  "  to  act  generally  upon  the  advice  of 


364  THE  STORY  OF  CANADA. 

his  executive  council,  and  to  receive  as  members  of 
that  body  those  persons  who  might  be  pointed  out 
to  him  as  entitled  to  do  so  by  their  possessing  the 
confidence  of  the  assembly. "  No  act  of  parliament 
was  necessary  to  effect  this  important  change;  the 
insertion  and  alteration  of  a  few  paragraphs  in  the 
Governor's  instructions  were  sufficient.  By  1848  the 
provinces  of  Canada,  Nova  Scotia,  and  New  Bruns- 
wick, and  by  1851  Prince  Edward  Island,  were  in 
the  full  enjoyment  of  a  system  of  self-government, 
which  had  been  so  long  advocated  by  their  ablest 
public  men ;  and  the  results  have  proved,  on  the 
whole,  despite  the  excesses  and  mistakes  of  party, 
eminently  favourable  to  political  as  well  as  material 
development. 

In  the  historic  annals  of  the  great  contest  that 
was  fought  for  responsible  government,  some  names 
stand  out  most  prominently.  Foremost  is  that  of 
Joseph  Howe,  the  eminent  Liberal,  whose  eloquence 
charmed  the  people  of  Nova  Scotia  for  many  years. 
In  his  early  life  he  was  a  printer  and  an  editor,  but 
he  became  a  leader  of  his  party  soon  after  he  entered 
the  legislature,  and  died  a  lieutenant-governor  of 
his  native  province.  In  New  Brunswick,  Lemuel 
A.  Wilmot,  afterwards  a  judge  and  lieutenant- 
governor,  was  a  man  of  much  energy,  persuasive 
eloquence,  and  varied  learning.  Robert  Baldwin,  of 
Upper  Canada,  was  a  statesman  of  great  discretion, 
who  showed  the  people  how  their  liberties  could  be 
best  promoted  by  wise  and  constitutional  agitation. 
Louis  Hyppolite  Lafontaine  was  one  of  the  most  dis- 
tinguished and  capable  men  that  French  Canada  has 


RESPONSIBLE   GO  VERiXMEN  T, 


3^5 


ever  given  to  the  legislature  and  tlie  bench.  Hy 
his  poHtical  aUiance  with  Mr,  l^aldwin,  the  principles 
of  responsible  government  were  placed  on  a  durable 
basis.     In  the  parent  state  the  names  of  Lord  John 


ROBERT    BALDWIN. 


Russell,  Mr.  Gladstone,  and  Earl  Grey— colonial 
secretaries  from  1839  to  1852 — are  especially  asso- 
ciated with  the  concession  of  those  great  principles 
which  have  enlarged  the  sphere  of  self-government 
in  the  colonies  of  the  English  Crown, 


0 


66  THE   STORY  OF  CAXADA, 


During  the  quarter  of  a  century  that  elapsed  from 
1842  to  1867 — the  crucial  period  of  national  develop- 
ment— an  industrious  population  tlovved  steadily  into 
the  country,  the  original  population  became  more 
self-reliant  and  pursued  their  vocations  with  renewed 
energy,  and  confidence  increased  on  all  sides  in  the 
ability  of  the  provinces  to  hold  their  own  against  the 
competition  of  a  wonderfully  enterprising  neighbour. 
Cities,  towns,  and  villages  were  built  up  with  a 
rapidity  not  exceeded  even  on  the  other  side  of  the 
border.  In  those  days  Ontario  became  the  noble 
province  that  she  now  is  by  virtue  of  the  capacity 
of  her  people  for  self-government,  the  energy  of  her 
industrial  classes,  the  fjrtility  of  her  soil,  and 
the  superiority  of  her  climate.  The  maritime  indus- 
try of  the  lower  provinces  was  developed  most  en- 
couragingly, and  Nova  Scotia  built  up  a  commercial 
marine  not  equalled  by  that  of  any  New  England 
State.  The  total  population  of  the  provinces  of 
British  North  America,  now  comprised  within  the 
confederation  of  1867,  had  increased  from  a  million 
and  a  half  in  1840  to  three  millions  and  a  quarter  in 
1 86 1 — the  ratio  of  increase  in  those  years  having 
been  greater  than  at  any  previous  or  later  period  of 
Canadian  history.  It  was  during  this  period  that 
the  Grand  Trunk  Railway,  which  has  done  so  much 
to  assist  the  material  progress  of  the  old  province  of 
Canada,  was  constructed.  In  1850  there  were  only 
fifty  miles  of  railway  in  operation  throughout  Can- 
ada, but  by  1867  there  were  nearly  three  thousand 
miles,  and  that  magnificent  example  of  engineering 
§kill,  the  Victoria  Bridge,  carried  passengers  across 


KEsroxsiBiJ-:  goverxment.  367 

the  St.  Lawrence  at  Montreal,  and  connected  Can- 
ada with  the  j^reat  railway  system  of  the  United 
States.  With  railway  development  must  always  be 
associated  the  name  of  Sir  Francis  Hincks,  an  able 
statesman  of  the  Liberal  party,  who  reco^^nised  the 
necessities  of  a  new  country. 

So  far  from  the  act  of  1840,  which  united  the 
Canadas,  acting  unfavourably  to  the  French  Cana- 
dian people  it  gave  them  eventually  a  predominance 
in  the  councils  of  the  country.  French  soon  again 
became  the  official  language  by  an  amendment  to 
the  union  act,  and  the  claims  providing  for  equality 
of  representation  proved  a  security  when  the  upper 
province  increased  more  largely  in  population  than 
the  French  Canadian  section.  The  particular  meas- 
ure which  the  French  Canadians  had  pressed  for  so 
many  years  on  the  British  Government,  an  elective 
legislative  council,  was  conceded.  When  a  few 
years  had  passed  the  Canadian  legislature  was  given 
full  control  of  taxation,  supply,  and  expenditure,  in 
accordance  with  English  constitutional  principles. 
The  clergy  reserves  difficulty  was  settled  and  the 
land  sold  for  public  or  municipal  purposes,  the  in- 
terest of  existing  rectors  and  incumbents  being 
guarded.  The  great  land  question  of  Canada,  the 
seigniorial  tenure  of  Lower  Canada,  was  disposed  of 
by  buying  off  the  claims  of  the  seigniors,  and  the 
people  of  Lower  Canada  were  freed  from  exactions 
which  had  become  not  so  much  onerous  as  vexatious. 
Municipal  institutions  of  a  hberal  nature  were  estab- 
lished, and  the  people  of  the  two  Canadian  provinces 
exercised  that  control  of  their  local  affairs  in  th^ 


T 


368  THE   STORY   OF   CAXADA. 

counties,  townships,  cities,  and  parishes  which  is 
necessary  to  carr}-  out  pubHc  works  indispensable  to 
the  comfort,  liealth,  and  convenience  of  the  coinnui- 
nity,  and  to  supplement  the  efforts  made  by  the 
le<^islature,  from  time  to  time,  to  provide  for  the 
<^eneral  education  of  the  country.  With  the  ma^ 
nificent  system  of  public  schools  now  possessed  by 
Ontario  must  always  be  associated  the  name  of  Dr. 
E'^erton  Ryerson,  a  famous  Methodist,  the  oppo- 
nent of  Mackenzie's  seditious  action,  and  for  manv 
years  the  superintendent  of  education.  In  Nova 
Scotia  it  was  chiefly  throui^h  the  foresii^ht  of  Sir 
Charles  Tupper,  when  premier,  that  the  foundations 
were  laid  of  the  present  admirable  system.  Durin^^ 
the  same  period  the  schools  of  New  Brunswick  and 
Prince  Edward  Island  were  also  placed  on  an  excel- 
lent basis.  In  the  maritime  provinces  no  express 
le^al  pro\ision  was  made  for  separate  or  denomina- 
tional schools,  as  in  Upper  and  Lower  Canada — 
schools  now  protected  by  the  terms  of  the  federal 
union  of  1867.  The  civil  service,  which  necessarily 
plays  so*  important  a  part  in  the  administration  of 
government,  was  placed  on  a  permanent  basis. 

The  anxiety  of  the  British  Government  to  bury 
in  oblivion  the  unfortunate  events  of  1837-38  was 
proved  by  an  amnesty  that  was  granted  soon  after 
the  union  of  1841,  to  the  banished  offenders  against 
the  public  peace  and  the  Crown.  William  Lyon  Mac- 
kenzie, Louis  Joseph  Papineau,  and  W^olfred  Nelson 
came  back  and  were  elected  to  Parliament,  though 
the  two  first  never  exercised  any  influence  in  the 
future, 


RESrOXS/8LE   GO  I  'EA'XAf/uV  T. 


3^ 


TliLMi  occurred  an  event  which  had  its  origin  in 
the  rehelHon,  and  in  the  r.icial  antai^onism  wliich 
was  still  sluniberinLT  in  the  bosom  of  the  State.     In 


SIR    LOUIS  H.  LAFONTAINE. 


the  first  session  of  the  Union  Parliament,  compensa- 
tion was  granted  to  those  loyalists  of  Upper  Canada, 
whose  property  had  been  unnecessarily  or  wantonly 


370  THE   STORY  OF  CAXADA. 

destroyed  during  the  outbreak.  The  claim  was  then 
raised  on  behalf  of  persons  similarly  situated  in 
Lower  Canada.  The  Conservative  Draper  g<jvern- 
ment  of  1845  ^ij^reed  to  pay  a  small  amount  of 
rebellion  losses  as  a  sequence  of  a  report  made  by 
commissioners  appointed  to  inquire  mto  the  subject. 
At  a  later  time,  when  Lord  Elgin  was  go\ernor- 
general,  the  Baldwi.i-Lafontaine  ministry  brought 
down  a  measure  to  indemnify  all  those  persons  who 
had  not  taken  part  in  the  rebellion,  but  were  justly 
entitled  to  compensation  for  actual  losses.  The 
Tory  opposition  raised  the  cry,"  No  pay  to  rebels," 
and  some  of  them  in  their  anger  even  issued  a  man- 
ifesto in  favour  of  annexation.  The  parliament 
house  at  Montreal  was  burned  down,  a  great  num- 
ber of  books  and  records  destroyed,  and  Lord  Elgin 
grossly  insulted  for  having  assented  to  the  bill. 
This  very  discreditable  episode  in  the  political  his- 
tory of  Canada  proved  the  extremes  to  which  even 
men,  professing  extreme  loyalty,  can  be  carried  at 
times  of  political  passion  and  racial  difificulty. 

The  union  of  1841  did  its  work,  and  the  political 
conditions  of  Canada  again  demanded  another  rad- 
ical change  commensurate  with  the  material  and 
political  development  of  the  country,  and  capable 
of  removing  the  difficulties  that  had  arisen  in  the 
operation  of  the  act  of  1840.  The  claims  of  Upper 
Canada  to  larger  representation,  equal  to  its  in- 
creased population  since  1840,  owing  to  the  great 
immigration  which  had  naturally  sought  a  rich  and 
fertile  province,  were  steadily  resisted  by  the  P'rench 
Canadians  as  an  unwarrantable  interference  with  the 


RESPOXSiBLE  GOVEAWMENT. 


371 


security  ^niarantccd  to  them  under  the  act.     This 
resistance  gave  rise  to  great  irritation  in  Upper  Can- 


L.  A.  WILMOT. 


ada,  where  a  powerful  party  made  representation  by 
population  their  platform,  and  government  at  last 
became   practically   impossible   on  account  of   the 


172  TltE   STORY  OF  CANADA. 

close  political  divisions  for  years  in  the  assembly. 
At  the  head  of  the  party  demanding  increased  rep- 
resentation was  Mr.  George  Ikown,  an  able  man  of 
Scotch  birth,  who  became  the  conductor  of  a  most 
influential  organ  of  public  opinion,  The  Toronto 
GlobCy  and  the  leader  of  the  **  Grits,"  or  extreme 
wing  of  the  Reformers  or  Liberals.  In  opposition 
to  him  were  allied  Mr.  George  Etiennc  Cartier,  once 
a  follower  of  I'apineau,  but  now  a  loyal  leader  of  his 
race,  and  Mr.  John  Alexander  Macdonald,  who  had 
occupied  a  prominent  position  for  years  as  a  Con- 
servative leader. 

The  time  had  come  for  the  accomplishment  of  a 
great  change  foreshadowed  by  Lord  Durham,  Chief- 
Justice  Sewell,  Mr.  Howe,  Sir  Alexander  Gait,  and 
other  public  men  of  Canada:  the  union  of  the  prov- 
inces of  British  North  America.  The  leaders  of  the 
different  governments  in  Canada,  and  the  maritime 
provinces  of  Nova  Scotia,  New  Brunswick,  and 
Prince  Edward  Island  combined  with  the  leaders  of 
the  opposition  with  the  object  of  carrying  out  this 
great  measure.  A  convention  of  thirty-three  repre- 
sentative men*  was  held  in  the  autumn  of  1864  in 

*  The  delegates  to  the  Quebec  conference,  held  the  following  posi- 
tions in  their  respective  provinces : 

Canada.  Hon,  Sir  Ktienne  P.  Tachc,  M.L.C.,  premier;  Hon. 
John  A.  Macdonald,  MP. P.,  attorney-general  of  Upper  Canada; 
Hon.  George  Etienne  Cartier,  M.P.P.,  attorney-general  of  Lower 
Canada;  Hon.  George  Brown,  M.P.P.,  president  of  the  executive 
council;  Hon.  Alexander  T.  Gait,  M.P.P.,  finance  minister;  Hon. 
Alexander  Campbell,  M.L.C..  commissioner  of  crown  lands  ; 
Hon.  Jean  C.  Chapais,  M.L.C.,  commissioner  of  public  v/orks  ; 
Hon.  Thomas  D'Arcy  McGee,  M.P.P.,  minister  of  floriculture ; 
lion.    Hector  L.   Lan^evin,    M.P.P.,   solicitor-general  for  Lower 


FEDERAL    UN/OX,  373 

the  historic  city  of  Quebec,  and  after  a  dehberation 
of  several  weeks  the  result  was  the  unanimous  adop- 
tion of  a  set  of  seventy-two  resolutions  enibod)in^ 
the  terms  and  conditions  on  which  the  provinces 
through  their  delegates  agreed  to  a  federal  union. 
These  resolutions  had  to  be  laid  before  the  various 
legislatures  and  adopted  in  the  shape  of  addresses  to 
the  Queen,  w  hose  sanction  was  necessary  to  embody 
the  wishes  of  the  provinces  in  an  imperial  statute. 

The  consent  of  the  legislature  was  considered 
sufficient  by  the  governments  of  all  the  provinces 
except  one,  though  the  (juestion  had  never  been  dis- 
cussed at  the  polls.  In  New  Brunswick  alone  was 
the  legislature  dissolved  on  the  issue,  and  it  was 
only  after  a  second  general  election  that  the  legisla- 

Canada  ;  Hon.  William  McDougall,  M.  P.  P..  provincial  secretary; 
Hon.  James  Cockburn,  M.P.P.,  solicitor-general  for  Upper  Canada  ; 
Hon.  Oliver  Mowat,  M.P. P.,  postmaster-gentral. 

Nova  Scotia  :  Hon.  Charles  Tupper,  M.P. P.,  provincial  secretary 
and  premier  ;  Hon.  William  A.  Henry,  M.P.P.,  attomey-general  ; 
Hon.  Robert  B.  Dickey,  M.L.C.  ;  Hon.  Adams  G.  Archibald, 
M.P.P.  ;  Hon.  Jonathan  McCully,  M.L.C. 

New  Brunswick :  Hon.  Samuel  L.  Tilley,  M.P.P.,  provincial 
secretary  and  premier  ;  Hon.  Peter  Mitchell,  M.L.C.  ;  Hon.  Charles 
Fisher,  M.P.P.  ;  Hon.  William  H.  Sleeves,  M.L.C;  Hun.  John 
Hamilton  Cray,  M.P.P.  ;  Hon.  Edward  B.  Chandler,  M.L.C.  ;  Hon. 
John  M,  Johnson,  M.P.P.,  attorney-general. 

Prince  Ed7vard  Island :  Hon.  John  Hamilton  Gray,  M.P.P., 
premier;  Hon.  George  Coles,  M.P.P.  ;  Hon.  Thomas  Heath  llavi- 
land,  M.P.P.;  Hon,  Edward  Pnlmer,  M.P.P,  attorney-general; 
Hon.  Andrew  Archibald  Macdonald,  M.L.C.  ;  Hon.  Edward 
Whelan,  M.L.C.  ;  Hon.  William  H.  Pope,  M.P.P.,  provincial 
secretary. 

Newfoundland :  Hon.  Fredevick  B.  T.  Carter,  M.P.P.,  speaker 
of  the  House  of  Assembly  ;  Hon.  Ambrose  Shea,  M.P.P. 


374  THE   STORY  OF  CANADA. 

ture  ajrrced  to  the  union.  In  Nova  Scotia,  after 
much  discussion  and  fL'cHn<;,  the  Icj^islaturc  passed 
a  resolution  in  favour  of  the  measure,  though  a  pop- 
ular sentiment  continued  to  exist  against  the  union 
for  several  years.  In  the  December  of  1866  a  sec- 
ond conference  of  delegates  from  the  governments 
of  Canada,  Xova  Scotia,  and  New  Brunswick,  was 
held  at  the  Westminster  I'alace  Hotel  in  London, 
and  some  modifications  were  made  in  the  Quebec 
resolutions,  chiefly  with  a  view  of  meeting  objec- 
tions from  the  maritime  provinces.  In  the  early 
part  of  1867  the  imperial  parliament,  without  a 
division,  passed  the  statute  known  as  the  **  British 
North  America  Act,  1867,"  which  united  in  the  first 
instance  the  province  of  Canada,  now  divided  into 
Ontario  and  Quebec,  with  Nov^a  Scotia  and  New 
Brunswick,  and  made  provisions  for  the  coming  in 
of  the  other  provinces  of  Prince  Edward  Island, 
Newfoundland,  British  Columbia,  and  the  admission 
of  Rupert's  Land  and  the  great  Northwest. 

From  1840  to  1867  the  relations  of  Canada  and 
the  United  States  became  much  closer,  and  more 
than  once  assumed  a  dangerous  phase.  In  1840 
the  authorities  of  New  York  arrested  one  Mac- 
leod  on  the  charge  of  having  murdered  a  man  em- 
ployed in  the  Caroline^  when  she  was  seized  by  the 
loyalists  during  the  outbreak  of  1837.  The  matter 
gave  rise  to  much  correspondence  between  the  gov- 
ernments of  Great  Britain  and  the  CJnited  States, 
and  to  a  great  deal  of  irritation  in  Canada,  but  hap- 
pily for  the  peace  of  the  two  countries  the  courts 
acquitted  Macleod,  as  the  evidence  was  clear  he  had 


NELATIOXS    WITH  UNlTEb  STATES.         ^^J 

nothing  to  do  with  the  seizure  of  the  vessel.  In 
1842  the  question  of  the  boundary  between  Maine 
and  New  Brunswick  was  settled  by  what  is  generally 
known  in  Canada  as  **  the  Ashburton  Capitulation." 
As  a  result  of  the  settlement  made  by  Mr.  Daniel 
Webster  on  the  part  of  the  United  States,  and  of 
Mr.  Alexander  Baring,  afterwards  Lord  Ashburton, 
on  behalf  of  Great  Britain,  the  State  of  Maine  now 
presses  like  a  hu^e  wed^e  into  the  provinces  of  New 
Brunswick  and  Quebec,  and  a  Canadian  railway  is 
obliged  to  pass  over  American  territory,  which  many 
Canadians  still  believe  ought  to  be  a  part  of  the 
Canadian  Dominion.  In  1846  Great  Britain  yielded 
to  the  persistency  of  American  statesmen,  and 
agreed  to  accept  the  line  49°  to  the  Pacific  coast, 
and  the  whole  of  VancouvxT  Island,  which,  for  a 
while,  seemed  on  the  point  of  following  the  fate  of 
Oregon,  and  becoming  exclusively  American  terri- 
tory. But  the  question  of  boundary  was  not  even 
then  settled,  as  the  Island  of  San  Juan,  which  lies 
in  the  channel  betwx^en  V^ancouver  and  the  main- 
land, and  is  mainly  valuable  as  a  base  of  offensive 
and  defensive  operations  in  times  of  war,  was,  in 
later  years,  handed  over  to  the  Republic  as  a  result 
of  its  successful  diplomacy. 

During  this  period  the  fishery  question  again 
assumed  considerable  importance.  American  ves- 
sels were  shut  out  from  the  waters  of  certain  colonial 
bays,  in  accordance  with  the  convention  of  181 8, 
and  a  number  of  them  captured  from  time  to  time 
for  the  infringement  of  the  law.  The  United  States 
Government  attempted  to  raise  iss  aes  which  would 


376  THE   STORY  OF  CANADA. 

limit  Canadian  rights,  but  all  these  questions  were 
placed  in  abeyance  for  tvvelve  years  by  the  Reci- 
procity Treaty  of  1854,  which  opened  up  the  pro- 
vincial fisheries  to  the  people  of  the  United  States, 
on  condition  of  free  trade  between  the  provinces 
and  that  country  in  certain  natural  products  of  the 
mines,  fisheries,  and  farms  of  the  two  peoples.  This 
measure  was  in  itself  an  acknowledgment  of  the 
growing  importance  of  the  provinces,  and  of  the 
larger  measure  of  self-government  now  accorded 
them.  The  treaty  only  became  law  with  the  con- 
sent of  the  provincial  legislatures;  and,  although 
the  Canadian  governments  were  not  directly  repre- 
sented by  any  of  their  members,  the  governor- 
general.  Lord  Elgin,  who  personally  conducted  the 
negotiations  on  the  part  of  England  at  Washington, 
in  this,  as  in  all  other  matters  touching  colonial 
interests,  was  assisted  by  the  advice  of  his  respon- 
sible ministers.  The  treaty  lasted  until  1866,  when 
it  was  repealed  by  the  action  of  the  United  States 
in  accordance  with  the  provision  bringing  it  to  a 
conclusion  after  one  j^ear's  notice  from  one  of  the 
parties  interested. 

The  commercial  classes  in  the  Eastern  and  West- 
ern States  were,  on  the  whole,  favourable  to  an 
enlargement  of  the  treaty,  so  as  to  bring  in  British 
Columbia  and  Vancouver  Island,  now  colonies  of 
the  Crown,  and  to  include  certain  other  articles  the 
produce  of  both  countries,  but  the  real  cause  of  its 
repeal  was  the  prejudice  in  the  North  against  the 
provinces  for  their  supposed  sympathy  for  the  Con- 
federate States  during  the  War  of  the  Rebellion.    A 


RELATIONS    WITH   UNITED  STATUS,        377 

large  body  of  men  in  the  North  had  brought  them- 
selves fooHshly  to  beHeve  that  the  repeal  of  the 
treaty  would,  sooner  or  later,  force  the  provinces 
into  annexation.  A  raid  made  by  a  few  rash  Con- 
federates who  had  found  refuge  in  Canada,  on  the 
St.  Albans  Bank,  in  the  State  of  Vermont,  deeply 
incensed  the  people  of  the  North,  though  at  no 
time  could  it  be  proved  that  the  Canadian  author- 
ities had  the  least  suspicion  of  the  proposed  expedi- 
tion. On  the  contrary,  they  brought  the  culprits 
to  trial,  placed  companies  of  volunteers  along  the 
frontier,  and  even  paid  a  large  sum  of  money  in 
acknowledgment  of  an  alleged  responsibility  when 
some  of  the  stolen  money  was  returned  to  the  rob- 
bers on  their  release  by  a  Montreal  magistrate. 
When  we  review  the  history  of  those  times  and 
consider  the  difficult  position  in  which  Canada  was 
necessarily  placed,  it  is  remarkable  how  honourably 
her  government  discharged  its  duties  of  a  neutral 
between  the  belligerents. 

No  doubt  the  position  of  Canada  was  made  more 
difficult  at  that  critical  time  by  the  fact  that  she  was 
a  colony  of  Great  Britain,  against  whom  both  North 
and  South  entertained  bitter  feelings  by  the  close  of 
the  war;  the  former  mainly  on  account  of  the 
escape  of  Confederate  cruisers  from  English  ports, 
and  the  latter  because  she  did  not  receive  active 
support  from  England.  The  North  had  also  been 
much  excited  by  the  promptness  with  w^hich  Lord 
Palmerston  had  sent  troops  to  Canada  when  Mason 
and  Slidell  were  seized  on  an  English  packet  on  the 
high  seas,  and  the  bold  tone  held  by  some  Canadian 


37^  THE  STORY  OF  CANADA. 

papers  when  it  was  doubtful  if  the  prisoners  would 
be  released. 

Contemporaneously  with  the  repeal  of  the  Reci- 
procity Treaty  came  the  raids  of  the  Fenians — 
bands  of  men  who  did  dishonour  to  the  cause  of 
Ireland,  under  the  pretence  of  striking  a  blow  at 
England  through  Canada,  where  their  countrymen 
have  always  found  happy  homes,  free  government, 
and  honourable  positions.  For  months  before  the 
invasion  American  newspapers  were  full  of  accounts 
of  the  assembling  and  arming  of  these  bands  on  the 
frontiers  of  Canada.  They  invaded  the  Dominion 
in  1866,  property  was  destroyed,  and  a  number  of 
Canadian  youth  lost  their  lives  near  Ridgeway,  in 
the  Niagara  district,  but  one  O'Neil  and  his  collec- 
tion of  disbanded  soldiers  and  fugitives  from  justice 
were  forced  back  by  the  Canadian  forces  to  the 
country  whose  neutrality  they  had  oui.aged.  The 
United  States  authorities  had  calmly  looked  on 
while  all  the  preparations  for  these  raids  were  in 
progress.  Proclamations  were  at  last  issued  by  the 
government  when  the  damage  had  been  done,  and  a 
few  raiders  were  arrested ;  but  the  House  of  Repre- 
sentatives immediately  sent  a  resolution  to  the  Presi- 
dent, requesting  him  "  to  cause  the  prosecutions, 
instituted  in  the  United  States  courts  against  the 
Fenians,  to  be  discontinued  if  compatible  with  the 
public  interest  " — a  request  which  was  complied 
w'th.     In  1870  another  raid*  was  attempted  on  the 

*  In  the  autumn  of  1871,  a  body  of  Fenians  were  prevented  from 
raiding  the  new  province  of  Manitoba  by  the  prompt  action  of  the 
troops  of  the  United  States  stationed  on  the  frontier. 


RELATIONS    WITH    UNITED   STATES.         379 

Lower  Canadian  frontier,  but  it  was  easily  repulsed, 
and  the  authorities  of  the  United  States  did  their 
duty  with  promptitude.  For  all  the  losses,  how- 
ever, that  Canada  sustained  through  these  invasions 
oi  her  territory,  she  has  never  received  any  compen- 
sation whatever. 

Out  of  the  very  circumstances  which  were  appar- 
ently calculated  to  do  much  injury  to  Canada,  her 
people  learned  lessons  of  wisdom  and  self-reliance, 
and  were  stimulated  to  go  vigorously  to  work  to 
carry  out  that  scheme  of  national  development 
which  had  its  commencement  in  the  Quebec  confer- 
ence  of  1864,  and  was  constitutionally  inaugurated 
in  1867  when  the  provinces  entered  on  the  new  era 
of  federal  union. 


XXVI. 

END    OF    THE    RULE    OF    FUR-TRADERS— ACQUISI- 
TION  OF  THE   NORTHWEST — FORMATION   OF 
MANITOBA — RIHI/S    RFHKLLIONS — 
THE    INDIANS. 


(1670-I885.) 

In  1867  the  Dominion  of  Canada  comprised  only 
the  four  provinces,  formerly  contained  in  the  ancient 
historical  divisions  of  Acadia  and  Canada,  and  it 
became  the  immediate  duty  of  its  public  men  to 
complete  the  union  by  the  admission  of  Prince  Ed- 
ward Island  and  British  Columbia,  and  bv  the 
acquisition  of  the  vast  region  which  had  been  so 
long  under  the  rule  of  a  company  of  fur-traders. 
In  the  language  of  the  eloquent  Irishman,  Lord 
Dufferin,  when  governor-general,  "  the  historical 
territories  of  the  Canadas — the  eastern  sea-boards 
of  New  Brunswick,  Nova  Scotia,  and  Labrador — 
the  Laurentian  lakes  and  valleys,  corn  lands  and 
pastures,  though  themselves  more  extensive  than 
half  a  dozen  European  kingdoms,  were  but  the  ves- 
tibules and  antechambers  to  that,  till  then,  undreamt 

380 


END  OF  THE  RULE  OF  THE  FUF-TRADERS.     38 1 

of  dominion  whose  illimitable  dimensions  alike  con- 
found the  arithmetic  of  the  surveyor  and  the  verifi- 
cation of  the  explorer." 

The  history  of  this  northwest,  whose  rolling  prai- 
ries now  constitute  so  large  a  proportion  of  the 
wealth  of  Canada  was,  until  1867,  entirely  the  his- 
tory of  the  fur  trade.  Two  centuries  and  a  half  ago 
a  company  of  traders,  known  as  the  **  honourable 
company  of  adventurers  from  England  trading  into 
Hudson's  Bay,"  received  from  Charles  II.  a  royal 
licence  in  what  was  long  known  as  Rupert's  Land, 
and  first  raised  its  forts  on  the  inhospitable  shores 
of  the  great  bay,  only  accessible  to  European  vessels 
during  the  summer  months.  Among  the  prominent 
members  of  this  company  was  the  cousin  of  the 
King,  Prince  Rupert,  that  gallant  cavalier.  The 
French  in  the  valley  of  the  St.  Lawrence  looked 
with  jealousy  on  these  efforts  of  the  English  to 
establish  themselves  at  the  north,  and  Le  Moyne 
d' Iberville,  that  daring  Canadian,  had  destroyed 
their  trading-posts.  Still  the  Hudson's  Bay  Com- 
pany persevered  in  their  enterprise,  and  rebuilt  their 
forts  where  they  carried  on  a  very  lucrative  trade 
with  the  Indians  who  came  from  all  parts  of  that 
northern  region  to  barter  their  rich  furs  for  the  ex- 
cellent goods  which  the  company  always  supplied 
to  the  natives.  In  the  meantime,  while  the  English 
were  established  at  the  north,  French  adventurers, 
the  Sieur  de  La  Verendrye,  a  native  of  Three  Rivers, 
and  his  two  sons,  reached  the  interior  of  the  north- 
west by  the  way  of  Lake  Superior  and  that  chain  of 
lakes  and  rivers  which  extends  from  Thunder  Bay 


382  THE   STORY  OF  CANADA. 

to  I.akc  Winnipeg.  Tlicsc  adventurous  Frenchmen 
raised  rude  posts  by  the  lakes  and  rivers  of  this 
re^^ion,  and  Verendrye's  sons  are  said  to  have  ex- 
tended their  explorations  in  January,  1743,  to  what 
was  probably  the  l^ighorn  Range,  an  outlying  but- 
tress of  the  Rocky  ^Mountains,  running  athwart  the 
sources  of  the  Yellowstone.  The  wars  between 
France  and  England,  however,  stopped  French  trade 
in  that  northwestern  region,  and  the  Hudson's  Kay 
Company's  posts  at  the  n(jrth  were  the  only  signs  of 
European  occupation  when  Wolfe  and  Montcalm 
fell  on  the  Plains  of  Abraham,  and  the  fleur-de-lis 
was  struck  on  the  old  fort  of  the  Canadian  capital. 

Towards  the  latter  part  of  the  eighteenth  century, 
the  merchants  of  Canada,  who  were  individually 
dealing  in  furs,  formed  an  association  which,  under 
the  title  of  the  Northwest  Company,  was  long  the 
rival  of  the  Hudson's  Hay  adventurers.  I^oth  these 
companies  were  composed  of  P^nglishmen  and 
Scotchmen,  but  they  were  nevertheless  bitter  ene- 
mies, engaged  as  they  were  in  the  same  business  in 
the  wilderness.  The  employes  of  the  Hudson's  Bay 
Company  were  chiefly  Scotch,  while  the  Canadian 
Company  found  in  the  French  Canadian  population 
that  class  of  men  whom  it  believed  to  be  most  suit- 
able to  a  forest  life.  The  differences  in  the  nation- 
ality and  religion  of  the  servants  of  the  companies 
only  tended  to  intensify  the  bitterness  of  the  com- 
petition, and  at  last  led  to  scenes  of  tumult  and 
bloodshed.  The  Northwest  Company  found  their 
way  to  the  interior  of  Rupert's  Land  by  the  Ottawa 
River  and  the  Great  Lakes,     Their  posts  were  seen 


END   OF  THE  RULE   OF  THE   FUR-TRA DERS.     383 

by  the  Assiniboinc  and  Red  rivers,  even  in  the 
Saskatchewan  and  Athabascan  districts,  and  in  the 
valley  of  the  Columbia  amon^  the  mountains  of  the 
great  province  which  bears  the  name  of  that  noble 
stream.  The  Mackenzie  River  was  discovered  and 
followed  to  the  Arctic  Sea  by  one  of  the  members 
of  the  Northwest  Company,  whose  name  it  has 
always  borne.  At  a  later  time  a  trader,  Simon 
Fraser,  first  ventured  on  the  river  whose  name  now 
recalls  his  famous  journey,  and  David  Thompson,  a 
surveyor  of  the  Northwest  Company,  discovered  the 
river  ai  the  same  name.  Previous,  however,  to  these 
perilous  voyages,  the  Hudson's  Bay  Company  had 
been  forced  by  the  enterprise  of  its  rival  to  reach 
the  interior  and  compete  for  the  fur  traffic  which 
was  being  so  largely  controlled  by  the  Canadian 
Company.  In  1771,  Samuel  Ilearne,  one  of  the 
Hudson's  Bay  Company's  employes,  discovered  the 
Coi)permine  River,  and  three  years  later  established 
a  fort  on  the  Saskatchewan,  still  known  as  Cumber- 
land House.  In  later  years,  Sir  John  Franklin, 
George  Back,  and  Thomas  Simpson  added  largely 
to  the  geographical  knowledge  of  the  northern  parts 
of  the  great  region  watered  by  the  Coppermine,  the 
Great  Fish — also  called  the  Back, — and  other  streams 
which  fall  into  the  Arctic  Seas.  As  we  glance  at 
the  map  of  this  vast  region,  we  still  see  the  names 
of  the  numerous  posts  where  the  servants  of  the  fur 
companies  passed  their  solitary  lives,  only  relieved 
by  the  periodical  visits  of  Indian  trappers,  and  the 
arrival  of  the  "  trains  "  of  dogs  with  supplies  from 
Hudson's  Bay.    Forts  Enterprise,  Providence,  Good 


384  THE   STORY  OF  CANADA, 

Hope,  and  Resolution  are  among  the  names  of  posts 
which  tell  in  eloquent  terms  the  story  of  the  cour- 
age, endurance,  and  hope  that  first  planted  them 
throughout  that  solitary  land. 

It  was  on  the  banks  of  Red  River,  where  it  forms 
a  junction  with  the  Assiniboine,  that  civilisation 
made  the  first  effort  to  establish  itself  in  the  illimit- 
able domain  of  fur-traders,  always  jealous  of  settle- 
ment which  might  interfere  with  their  lucrative 
gains.  1  he  first  person  to  erect  a  post  on  the  Red 
River  was  the  elder  Vcrendrye,  who  built  Fort 
Rouge  about  1735  on  the  site  of  the  present  city  of 
Winnipeg.  The  same  adventurer  also  built  Fort  La 
Reine  at  Portage  La  Prairie.  In  181 1  an  enterpris- 
ing Scotch  nobleman,  the  Earl  of  Selkirk,  who  had 
previously  made  a  settlement  in  Prince  Edward 
Island,  became  a  large  proprietor  of  Hudson's  Bay 
stock,  and  purchased  from  the  company  over  a  hun- 
dred thousand  square  miles  of  territory,  which  he 
named  Assiniboia.  In  18 12  he  made  on  the  banks 
of  the  Red  River  a  settlement  of  Highland  Scotch 
and  a  few  Irishmen.  The  Northwest  Company 
looked  with  suspicion  on  this  movement  of  Lord 
Selkirk,  especially  as  he  had  such  large  influence  in 
the  rival  company.  In  18 16,  the  employes  of  the 
former,  chiefly  half-breeds,  destroyed  Fort  Douglas 
and  murdered  Governor  Semple,  who  was  in  charge 
of  the  new  Scotch  settlement.  As  soon  as  the  news 
of  this  outrage  reached  Lord  Selkirk,  he  hastened 
to  the  succour  of  his  settlement,  and  by  the  aid  of 
some  disbanded  soldiers,  whom  he  hired  in  Canada, 
he  restored  order.     Subsequently  he  succeeded  in 


END  OF  7 HE  A'(U.E   OF  THE  FUR-TRADERS.     385 

briii^inj;  to  a  trial  at  York  several  partners  and  per- 
sons in  the  service  of  the  Northwest  Company  on 
the  charges  of  **  high  treason,  murder,  robbery,  and 
conspiracy,"  but  in  all  cases  the  accused  were  ac- 
quitted. The  Northwest  Company  had  great  influ- 
ence at  this  time  throughout  Canada,  and  by  their 
instigation  actions  were  brought  against  Lord  Sel- 
kirk for  false  imprisonment,  and  for  conspiring  to 
ruin  the  trade  of  the  company,  and  he  was  mulcted 
in  heavy  damages.  Two  years  later  Lord  Selkirk 
died  in  France,  and  then  the  two  companies,  which 
had  received  great  injury  through  their  rivalry,  were 
amalgamated,  and  the  old  Hudson's  Bay  Company 
reigned  supreme  in  this  region  until  kS/o.  The  Red 
River  settlement  became  the  headquarters  of  the 
company,  who  established  in  1835  a  system  of  local 
gov^ernment — a  president  and  council  and  a  court  of 
law — and  built  Fort  Garry  on  the  site  of  a  fort  also 
bearing  the  same  name — that  of  a  director  of  the 
company.  The  new  fort  was  a  stone  structure,  hav- 
ing walls  from  ten  to  twelve  feet  high,  and  flanked 
by  bastions  defended  by  cannon  and  musketry.  In 
1867  the  houses  of  the  settlers  occupied  the  banks 
of  the  Red  River  at  short  intervals  for  twenty-four 
miles.  Many  evidences  of  prosperity  and  thrift 
were  seen  throughout  the  settlement ;  the  churches 
and  school-houses  proved  that  religion  and  educa- 
tion were  highly  valued  by  the  people.  The  most 
conspicuous  structure  was  the  Roman  Catholic 
Church  of  St.  Boniface,  whose  bells  at  matins  and 
vespers  were  so  often  a  welcome  sound  to  the  wan- 
derers on  the  plains. 


386  THE   STORY  OF  CANADA, 

•'  Is  it  the  clang  of  wild-geese, 
Is  it  the  Irifiians'  yell 
That  lends  to  the  voice  of  the  North  wind 
The  tone  of  a  far-off  bell  ? 

"  The  voyageur  smiles  as  he  listens 

To  the  sound  that  grows  apace  : 
Well  he  knows  the  vesper  ringing 
Of  the  bells  of  Saint  ]>oniface. 

"  The  bells  of  the  Roman  mission 

That  call  from  their  turrets  tv.ain. 
To  the  boatmen  on  the  river, 

To  the  hunters  on  the  plain." 

On  all  sides  there  were  evidcMices  of  comfort  in 
this  little  oasis  of  civilisation  amid  the  prairies. 
The  descendants  of  the  two  nationaHties  dwelt  apart 
in  French  and  British  parishes,  each  of  which  had 
their  separate  schools  and  churches.  The  houses 
and  plantations  of  the  British  settlers,  and  of  a  few 
French  Canadians,  indicated  thrift,  but  the  majority 
of  the  French  half-breeds,  or  Mctisy  the  descendants 
of  French  Canadian  fathers  and  Indian  mothers, 
continued  to  live  almost  entirely  on  the  fur  trade, 
as  voyageurs,  trappers,  and  hunters.  They  exhib- 
ited all  the  characteristics  of  those  hardy  and  ad- 
venturous men  who  were  the  pioneers  of  the  west. 
Skilful  hunters  but  poor  cultivators  of  the  soil,  fond 
of  amusement,  rash  and  passionate,  spendin^^  their 
gains  as  soon  as  made,  too  often  in  dissipation, 
many  of  them  were  true  representatives  of  the  cou- 
retirs  dc  bois  of  the  days  of  Frontenac.  This  class 
was  numerous  in  1869  when  the  government  of  Can- 
ada first  presented  itself  to  :laim  the  territory  of  the 


ACQUISITION  OF  THE   NORTHWEST.  387 

Northwest  as  a  part  of  the  Dominion.  After  years 
of  negotiation  the  Hudson's  liay  Company  had  rec- 
ognised the  necessity  of  allowing  the  army  of  civih- 
sation  to  advance  into  the  region  which  it  had  so 
long  kept  as  a  fur  preserve.  The  British  Govern- 
ment obtained  favourable  terms  for  the  Dominion, 
and  the  whole  country  from  line  49°  to  the  Arctic 
region,  and  from  Lake  Superior  to  the  Rocky  Moun- 
tains became  a  portion  of  the  Canadian  domain,  with 
the  exception  of  small  tracts  of  land  in  the  vicinity 
of  the  company's  posts,  which  they  still  continue  to 
maintain  wherever  the  fur  trade  can  be  profitably 
carried  on.  In  1869  the  Canadian  ministry,  of 
which  Sir  John  Macdonald  was  premier,  took  meas- 
ures to  assume  possession  of  the  country,  where 
they  proposed  to  establish  a  provisional  govern- 
ment. Mr.  William  McDougall,  a  prominent  Cana- 
dian Liberal,  one  of  the  founders  of  confederation, 
always  an  earnest  advocate  of  the  acquisition  of  the 
Northwest,  was  appointed  to  act  as  lieutenant- 
governor  as  soon  as  the  formal  transfer  was  made. 
This  transfer,  however,  was  not  completed  until  a 
few  months  later  than  it  was  at  first  expected,  and 
the  government  of  Canada  appears  to  have  acted 
with  some  precipitancy  in  sending  surveyors  into 
the  country,  and  in  allowing  Mr.  McDougall  to  pro- 
ceed at  once  to  the  scene  of  his  proposed  govern- 
ment. It  would  have  been  wise  had  the  Canadian 
authorities  taken  measures  to  ascertain  the  wishes  of 
the  small  but  independent  population  with  respect 
to  the  future  government  of  their  own  country. 
The  British  as  well  as  French  settlers  resented  the 


388  THE  STOKV  OF  CAXADA. 

hasty  action  of  the  Canadian  authorities.  The  half- 
breeds,  httle  ac(iuainted  with  questions  of  j^overn- 
mcnt,  saw  in  tlie  appearance  of  surveying  parties  an 
insidious  attempt  to  dispossess  them  eventually  of 
their  lands,  to  which  many  of  them  had  not  a  sound 
title.  The  British  settlers,  the  best  educated  and 
most  intcUi^aiU  portion  of  the  po[)ulation,  believed 
that  a  popular  form  of  government  should  have 
been  immediately  established  in  the  old  limits  of 
Assiniboia,  as  soon  as  it  became  a  part  of  Canada. 
Some  of  the  Hudson's  Hay  Company's  employes 
were  not  in  their  hearts  pleased  at  the  transfer,  and 
the  probable  change  in  their  position  in  a  country 
where  they  had  been  so  long  masters.  Although 
these  men  stood  aloof  from  the  insurrection,  yet 
their  influence  was  not  exercised  at  the  commence- 
ment of  the  troubles,  in  favour  of  peace  and  order, 
or  in  exposing  the  plans  of  the  insurgents,  of  which 
some  of  them  must  have  had  an  idea.  The  appear- 
ance of  IVIr.  McDougall  on  the  frontier  of  the  settle- 
ment, was  the  signal  for  an  outbreak  which  has  been 
dignified  by  the  name  of  rebellion.  The  insurgents 
seized  Fort  Garry,  and  established  a  provisional 
government  with  Mr.  John  Bruce,  a  Scotch  settler, 
as  nominal  president,  and  Mr.  Louis  Riel,  the  ac- 
tual leader,  as  secretary  of  state.  The  latter  was  a 
French  half-breed,  who  had  been  superficially  edu- 
cated in  French  Canada.  His  temperament  was 
that  of  a  race  not  inclined  to  steady  occupation, 
loving  the  life  of  the  river  and  plain,  ready  to  put 
law  at  defiance  when  their  rights  and  privileges  were 
in   danger.      This  restless  man  and  his  half-breed 


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390  THE   STORY  OF  CAXADA. 

associates  soon  found  themselves  at  the  head  and 
front  of  the  whole  rebeUious  movement,  as  the  Brit- 
ish settlers,  while  disapproving  of  the  action  of  the 
Canadian  Gov^ernment,  were  not  prepared  to  support 
the  seditious  designs  of  the  French  Canadian  Metis. 
Riel  became  president,  and  made  prisoners  of  Dr. 
Schultz,  in  later  times  a  lieutenant-governor  of  the 
new  province,  and  of  a  number  of  other  British  set- 
tlers who  were  now  anxious  to  restore   order   and 
come  to  terms  with  the  Canadian  Government,  who 
were  showing  every  disposition  to  arrange  the  diffi- 
culty.    In  the  meantime  Mr.    McDoucrall  issued  a 
proclamation  which  was  a  mere  brutuui  fuhncn,  and 
then  went   back  to  Ottawa,  where  he  detailed   his 
grievances  and   soon   afterwards   disappeared    from 
public  life.     The  Canadian  authorities  by  this  time 
recognised  their  mistake  and  entered  into  negotia- 
tions with  Red  River  delegates,  representing  both 
the  loyal  and  rebellious  elements,    and   the  result 
was  most  favourable  for  the  immediate  settlement 
of    the   difficulties.     At    this    critical   juncture    the 
Canadian    Government   had   the   advantage   of  the 
sage  counsels  of  Sir  Donald  Smith,  then  a  promi- 
nent official  of  the  Hudson's  Bay  Company,  who  at 
a  later  time  became  a  prominent  figure  in  Canadian 
public  life.     Chiefly  through  the  instrumentality  of 
Archbishop  Tache,  whose  services  to  the  land  and 
race  he  loved  can  never  be  forgotten  by  its  people, 
an  amnesty  was  promised  to  those  w^ho  had  taken 
part   in   the    insurrection,   and   the   troubles  would 
have  come  to  an  end  had  not  Riel,  in  a  moment  of 
recklessness,  characteristic  of  his  real  nature,  tried 


RIELS  REBELLIONS,  39 1 

one  Thomas  Scott  by  the  veriest  mockery  of  a 
court-martial  on  account  of  some  severe  words  he 
had  uttered  against  the  rebels'  government,  and 
had  him  mercilessly  shot  outside  the  fort.  As  Scott 
was  a  native  of  Ontario,  and  an  Orangeman,  his 
murder  aroused  a  widespread  feeling  of  indignation 
throughout  his  native  province.  The  amnesty 
which  was  promised  to  Archbishop  Tache,  it  is  now 
quite  clear,  never  contemplated  the  pardon  of  a 
crime  like  this,  which  was  committed  subsequently. 
The  Canadian  Government  were  then  fully  alive  to 
the  sense  of  their  responsibilities,  and  at  once  de- 
cided to  act  v\'ith  resolution.  In  the  spring  of  1870 
an  expedition  was  organised,  and  sent  to  the  North- 
west under  the  command  of  Colonel  Garnet  Wol- 
seley,  now  a  peer,  and  commander-in-chief  of  the 
British  army.  This  expedition  consisted  of  five 
hundred  regulars  and  seven  hundred  Canadian 
volunteers,  who  reached  Winnipeg  after  a  most 
wearisome  journey  of  nearly  three  months,  by  the 
old  fur-traders'  route  from  Thunder  Bay,  through 
an  entirely  unsettled  and  rouHi  country,  where  the 
portages  were  very  numerous  and  laborious.  Tow- 
ards the  end  of  August  the  expedition  reached 
their  destination,  but  found  that  Riel  had  fled  to 
the  United  States,  and  that  they  had  won  a  blood- 
less  victory.  Law  and  order  henceforth  prevailed  in 
the  new  territory,  whose  formal  transfer  to  the 
Canadian  Government  had  been  completed  some 
months  before,  and  it  was  now  formed  into  a  new 
province,  called  Manitoba,  with  a  complete  system 
of  local  government,  and  including  guaranties  with 


392  THE   STORY  OF  CANADA, 

respect  to  education,  as  in  the  case  of  the  old  prov- 
inces. The  first  lieutenant-governor  was  Mr.  Adams 
Archibald,  a  Nova  Scotian  lawyer,  who  was  one  of 
the  members  of  the  Quebec  conference,  and  a  states- 
man  of  much  discretion.  Representation  was  also 
t^iven  immediately  in  the  two  houses  of  the  Domin- 
ion parliament.  Subsequently  the  vast  territory 
outside  of  the  new  prairie  province  was  divided  into 
six  districts  for  purposes  of  government :  Alberta, 
Assiniboia,  Athabasca,  Keewatin,  and  Saskatche- 
wan. Keewatin  is  under  the  jurisdiction  of  the 
lieutenant-governor  of  Manitoba,  but  the  other  dis- 
tricts have  an  assembly  and  a  lieutenant-governor 
whose  seat  of  government  is  Regina,  though  the 
people  do  not  yet  enjoy  responsible  government. 
In  1896  four  new  provisional  districts  were  marked 
out  in  the  great  northern  unsettled  district  under 
the  names  of  Franklin,  Mackenzie,  Yukon,  and 
Ungava. 

In  the  course  of  a  few  vears  a  handsome,  well- 
built  city  arose  on  the  site  of  old  Fort  Garry,  and 
with  the  construction  of  the  Canadian  Pacific  Rail- 
way— a  national  highway  built  with  a  rapidity 
remarkable  even  in  these  days  of  extraordinary 
commercial  enterprise — and  the  connection  of  the 
Atlantic  sea-board  with  the  Pacific  shores,  villages 
and  towns  have  extended  at  distant  intervals  across 
the  continent,  from  Port  Arthur  to  Vancouver,  the 
latter  place  an  instance  of  western  phenomenal 
growth.  Stone  and  brick  buildings  of  fine  architec- 
tural proportions,  streets  paved  and  lit  by  electricity, 
huge  elevators,  busy  mills,  are  the  characteristics  of 


R/Ei:s  REBPILLION^.  393 

some  towns  where  only  yesterday  brooded  silence, 
and  the  great  flowery  stretches  of  prairie  were  only 
crushed  by  the  feet  of  wandering  Indians  and 
voyageurs. 

Fourteen  years  after  the  formation  of  the  prov- 
ince of  Manitoba,  whilst  the  Canadian  Pacific  Rail- 
way was  in  the  course  of  construction,  the  peace  of 
the  territories  was  again  disturbed  by  risings  of  half- 
breeds  in  the  South  Saskatchewan  district,  chiefly 
at  Duck  Lake,  St.  Laurent,  and  Batoche.  Many 
of  these  men  had  migrated  from  Manitoba  to  a 
country  where  they  could  follow  their  occupation 
of  hunting  and  fishing,  and  till  little  patches  of 
ground  in  that  shiftless  manner  characteristic  of 
the  Mentis.  The  total  number  of  half-breeds  in  the 
Saskatchewan  country  were  probably  four  thousand, 
of  whom  the  majority  lived  in  the  settlements  just 
named.  These  people  had  certain  land  grievances, 
the  exact  nature  of  which  it  is  not  easy  even  now  to 
ascertain ;  but  there  is  no  doubt  that  they  laboured 
under  the  delusion  that,  because  there  was  much 
red-tapeism  and  some  indifference  at  Ottawa  in 
dealing  with  their  respective  claims,  there  was  a 
desire  or  intention  to  treat  them  with  injustice. 
Conscious  that  they  might  be  crowded  out  by  the 
greater  energy  and  enterprise  of  white  settlers — that 
they  could  no  longer  depend  on  their  means  of  live- 
lihood in  the  past,  when  the  bufl"alo  and  other  game 
were  plentiful,  these  restless,  impulsive,  illiterate 
people  were  easily  led  to  believe  that  their  only 
chance  of  redressing  their  real  or  fancied  wrongs  was 
such  a  rising  as  had  taken  place  on  the  Red  River  in 


394  77//:    STOKY  OF  CAXADA. 

1869.  It  is  believed  that  Knj^lisli  settlers  in  the 
I'rince  Albert  district  secretly  fomented  the  risin<: 
with  the  hope  that  it  might  also  result  in  the  estab- 
lishment of  a  province  on  the  banks  of  the  Saskatch- 
ewan, despite  its  small  population.  The  a«^itators 
amon<^  the  half-breeds  succeeded  in  bringin<4  Rid 
into  the  country  to  lead  the  insurrection.  He  had 
been  an  exile  ever  since  1870,  and  was  at  the  time 
teaching  school  in  Montana.  After  the  rebellion  he 
had  been  induced  to  remain  out  of  the  Northwest 
by  the  receipt  of  a  considerable  sum  of  money  from 
the  secret  service  fund  of  the  Dominion  (jovern- 
ment,  then  led  by  Sir  John  Macdonald.  In  1874  he 
had  been  elected  to  the  House  of  Commons  bv  the 
new  constituency  of  Provencher  in  Manitoba;  but 
as  he  had  been  proclaimed  an  outlaw,  when  a  true 
bill  for  murder  was  found  against  him  in  the  Mani- 
toba  Court  of  Queen's  Bench,  and  when  he  had 
failed  to  appear  for  trial,  he  was  expelled  from  the 
house  on  the  motion  of  Mr.  Mackenzie  Howell,  a 
prominent  Orangeman,  and,  later,  premier  of  the 
Canadian  Government.  Lepine,  a  member  also  of 
the  so-called  provisional  government  of  Red  River, 
had  been  tried  and  convicted  for  his  share  in  the 
murder  of  Scott,  but  Lord  Dufferin,  when  governor- 
general,  exercised  the  prerogative  of  royal  clemency, 
as  an  imperial  officer,  and  commuted  the  punish- 
ment to  two  years'  imprisonment.  In  this  way 
the  Mackenzie  government  was  relieved — but  only 
temporarily — of  a  serious  responsibility  which  they 
were  anxious  to  avoid,  at  a  time  when  they  were 
between  the  two  fires:   of  the  people  of  Ontario, 


klEVS  RERELLIOXS.  395 

anxious  to  punish  the  murderers  with  every  severity, 
and  of  the  French  Canadians,  the  threat  majority 
of  whom  showed  a  hvely  sympathy  for  all  those 
who  had  taken  part  in  the  rebellion  of  1869.  The 
influence  of  French  Canada  was  also  seen  in  the 
later  action  of  the  Mackenzie  government  in  ob- 
tainintr  a  full  amnesty  for  all  concerned  in  the  re- 
bellion except  Kiel,  Lepine,  and  O'Donohue,  who 
were  banished  for  five  years.  The  popularity  en- 
joyed by  Riel  and  his  associates  in  F'rench  Canada, 
as  well  as  the  clemency  shown  to  them,  were 
doubtless  facts  considered  by  the  leaders  in  the 
second  risin*^  on  the  Saskatchewan  as  showin^^  that 
they  had  little  to  fear  from  the  consequences  of  their 
acts.  Riel  and  Dumont — the  latter  a  half-breed 
trader  near  Batoche — were  the  leaders  of  the  revolt 
which  broke  out  at  Duck  Lake  in  the  March  of  1885 
with  a  successful  attack  on  the  Mounted  Police  and 
the  Prince  Albert  Volunteers,  who  were  defeated 
with  a  small  loss  of  life.  This  success  had  much 
effect  on  the  Indian  tribes  in  the  Saskatchewan  dis- 
trict, among  whom  Riel  and  his  associates  had  been 
intriguing  for  some  time,  and  Poundmaker,  1-iig 
Bear,  and  other  chiefs  of  the  Cree  communities  liv- 
ing on  the  Indian  reserves,  went  on  the  warpath. 
Subsequently  Battleford,  then  the  capital  of  the 
Territories,  was  threatened  by  Indians  and  Met  is  y 
and  a  force  under  Big  Bear  massacred  at  FVog  Lake 
two  Oblat  missionaries,  and  some  other  persons, 
besides  taking  several  prisoners,  among  whom  were 
Mrs.  Delaney  and  Mrs.  Gowanlock,  widows  of  two 
of  the  murdered  men,  w^ho  were  released  at  the  close 


39^  THE   STORY  OF  CANADA. 

of  the  rising.  Fort  Pitt,  on  the  North  Saskatchewan, 
thirty  miles  from  Frog  Lake,  was  abandoned  by 
Inspector  Dickens — a  son  of  the  novelist — and  his 
detachment  of  the  Mounted  Police,  on  the  approach 
of  a  large  body  of  Indians  under  Hig  Bear.  When 
the  news  of  these  outrages  reached  Ottawa,  the  gov- 
ernment acted  with  great  promptitude.  A  French 
Canadian,  now  Sir  Adolphe  Caron,  was  then  minis- 
ter of  militia  in  Sir  John  Macdonald's  ministry,  and 
showed  himself  fully  able  to  cope  with  this,  happily, 
unusual,  experience  in  Canadian  Government.  From 
all  parts  of  the  Dominion — from  French  as  well  as 
English  Canada — the  volunteers  patriotically  rallied 
to  the  call  of  duty,  and  Major-General  Middleton,  a 
regular  officer  in  command  of  the  Canadian  militia, 
led  a  fine  force  of  over  four  thousand  men  into  the 
Northwest.  The  Canadian  Pacific  Railway  was  now 
built,  with  the  exception  of  a  few  breaks  of  about 
seventy-two  miles  in  all,  as  far  as  Qu'Appelle,  which 
is  sixteen  hundred  and  twenty  miles  from  Ottawa 
and  about  two  hundred  and  thirtv-five  miles  to  the 
south  of  Batoche.  The  Canadian  troops,  including 
a  fine  body  of  men  from  Winnipeg,  reached  Fish 
Creek,  fifteen  miles  from  Batoche,  on  the  24th  of 
April,  or  less  than  a  month  after  the  orders  were 
given  at  Ottawa  to  march  from  the  east.  Here  the 
insurgents,  led  by  Dumont,  were  concealed  in  rifle- 
pits,  ingeniously  constructed  and  placed  in  a  deep 
ravine.  They  checked  Middleton,  who  does  not 
appear  to  have  taken  sufficient  precautions  to  ascer- 
tain the  position  of  the  enemy — thoroughly  trained 
marksmen  who  were  able  to  shoot  down  a  consider- 


HI  EL'S  REBELLIONS,  397 

able  number  of  the  volunteers.  Later,  at  Batochc, 
the  Canadian  troops,  led  with  great  bravery  by  Col- 
onels Straubenzie,  Williams,  Mackcand,  and  Gras- 
sett,  scattered  the  insurgents,  who  never  made  an 
attempt  to  rally.  The  gallantry  of  Colonel  Williams 
of  the  Midlanders — an  Ontario  battalion — was  espe- 
cially conspicuous,  but  he  never  returned  from  the 
Northwest  to  receive  the  plaudits  of  his  countrymen, 
as  he  died  of  fever  soon  after  the  victory  he  did  so 
much  to  win  at  Batoche.  Colonel  Otter,  a  distin- 
guished officer  of  Toronto,  had  an  encounter  with 
Poundmaker  at  Cut  Knife  Creek  on  Battle  River, 
one  of  the  tributaries  of  the  North  Saskatchewan, 
and  prevented  him  from  making  any  hostile  demon- 
strations against  Battleford  and  other  places.  Ricl's 
defeat  at  Batoche  cowed  these  Indians,  who  gave  up 
their  arms  and  prisoners  to  Otter.  Elsewhere  in  the 
Territories  all  trouble  was  prevented  by  the  prompt 
transport  of  troops  under  Colonel  Strange  to  Fort 
Edmonton,  Calgary,  and  other  points  of  importance. 
The  Blackfeet,  the  most  formidable  bodv^  of  natives 
in  the  Territories,  never  broke  the  peace,  although 
they  were  more  than  once  very  restless.  Their 
good  behaviour  was  chiefly  owing  to  the  influence 
of  Chief  Crowfoot,  always  a  friend  of  the  Canadians. 
When  the  insurrection  was  over,  an  example  was 
made  of  the  leaders.  Dumont  succeeded  in  making 
his  escape,  but  Riel,  who  had  been  captured  after 
the  fight  at  Batoche,  was  executed  at  Regina  after 
a  most  impartial  trial,  in  which  he  had  the  assistance 
of  very  able  counsel  brought  from  French  Canada. 
Insanity  was  pleaded  even,  in  his  defence,  not  only 


398  THE   STONY  OF  CAXADA. 

in  the  court  hut  subscijucntly  iti  the  Commons  at 
( )tta\\;i,  u  hc-n  it  was  attempted  to  censure  the  Can- 
adian (jvivernment  for  their  stern  resohition  to 
vincHCiite  the  cau>e  of  order  in  the  lerritories. 
Pounchnaker  and  Hii;  Hear  were  sent  for  three  years 
to  the  penitentiary,  and  se\ eral  other  Indians  suf- 
fered the  extreme  penalty  of  the  law  for  the  mur- 
ders at  Fro<;  Lake.  Sir  John  Macdonald  was  at  the 
head  of  the  Canadian  (jovernment,  and  every  possi- 
ble effort  was  made  to  force  him  to  obtain  the  par- 
don of  Riel,  but  he  felt  that  he  could  not  afford  to 
weaken  the  authorit)*  of  law  in  the  west,  and  his 
French  Canadian  colleatj^ues.  Sir  Hector  Lan^evin, 
then  minister  of  public  works,  Sir  Adolphe  Chap- 
leau,  then  secretary  of  state, — now  lieutenant-i(ov- 
ernor  of  Quebec — Sir  Adol})he  Caron,  then  minister 
of  militia,  exhibited  commendable  courage  in  resist- 
ing the  passionate  and  even  menacing  appeals  of 
their  countrymen,  who  were  carried  away  at  this 
crisis  by  a  false  sentiment,  rather  than  by  a  true 
sense  of  justice.  Ha[)pily,  in  the  course  of  no  long 
time,  the  racial  antagonisms  raised  by  this  unhappy 
episode  in  the  early  history  of  confederation  disap- 
peared under  the  influence  of  wiser  counsels,  and 
the  peace  of  this  immense  region  has  never  since 
been  threatened  by  Indians  or  half-breeds,  who  have 
now  few,  if  any,  grievances  on  which  to  brood.  The 
patriotism  shown  by  the  Canadian  people  in  this 
memorable  contest  of  1885  illustrated  the  desire  of 
all  classes  to  consoliciate  the  union,  and  make  it 
secure  from  external  and  internal  dangers,  and  had 
also  an    admirable    influence  in  foreign    countries 


COLONEL  WILLIAMS. 


399 


400  THE    STOKY  Oh    CAXAHA, 

wliicli  coukl  now  appreciate  the  ^^cnviiifj  national 
strength  of  the  Dominion.  In  the  cities  of  Otl.iw.i, 
Toronto,  and  Winnipeg,  nionmnents  have  been 
raised  to  recall  tiie  services  (»f  the  volunteers  who 
fought  and  died  .it  I'ish  Creek  and  Hatoche.  On 
the  banks  of  the  Saskatchewan  a  high  cairn  and 
crt)ss  point  to  the  burial  place  of  the  men  who  fell 
l)efore  the  deadly  shot  of  the  half-breed  sharpshoot- 
ers at  Fish  Creek : 

**  Not  in  the  quiet  churchyanl,  near  those  who  U)vecl  them  best; 
But  by  the  wild  Saskatclitwnn,  they  K^id  them  to  their  rest. 
A  simple  soUlier's  funeral  in  that  lonely  spot  was  theirs, 
Made  consecrate  and  holy  by  a  nation's  tears  and  prayers. 
Their  retiuiem — the  music  of  the  river's  surging  tide  ; 
Their  funeral  wreaths,  tjje  wild  flowers  that  grow  on  every  side  ; 
Their  monument — undying  praise  from  each  Canadian  heart. 
That  hears  how,   for  their  country's  sake,  they  nobly  bore  their 
part." 

One  of  the  finest  bodies  of  troops  in  the  world, 
the  Mounted  Police  of  Canada,  nearly  one  thousand 
strong,  now  maintains  law  and  order  throughout  a 
district  upwards  of  three  hundred  thousand  square 
miles  in  area,  and  annually  cover  a  million  and  a  half 
miles  in  the  discharge  of  their  onerous  duties.  The 
half-breeds  now  form  but  a  very  small  minority  of 
the  population,  and  are  likely  to  disappear  as  a  dis- 
tinct class  under  the  influence  of  civilisation.  The 
Indians,  who  number  about  thirty  thousand  in 
Manitoba  and  the  Northwest,  find  their  interests 
carefully  guarded  by  treaties  and  statutes  of  Canada, 
which  recognise  their  rights  as  wards  of  the  Canadian 
Government.     They  are  placed  on   large  reserves, 


sa 


■r. 

H 

y. 


r. 

H 


< 

o 


c 


o 

t 


RtC'O. 


402  THE  SrOAV  OF  CANADA. 

where  they  can  carry  on  farming  and  other  indus- 
trial occLipatii)ns  for  which  the  Canadian  Govern- 
ment, with  commendable  liberality,  provide  means 
of  instruction.  Many  of  the  Indians  have  shown  an 
aptitude  for  agricultural  pursuits  which  has  surprised 
those  who  have  supposed  they  could  not  be  induced 
to  make  much  progress  in  the  arts  of  civilised  life. 
The  average  attendance  of  Indian  children  at  the 
industrial  and  other  schools  is  remarkably  large  com- 
pared even  with  that  of  white  children  in  the  old 
provinces.  The  Indian  population  of  Canada,  even 
in  the  Northwest  territory,  appear  to  have  reached 
the  stationary  stage,  and  hereafter  a  small  increase 
is  confidently  expected  by  those  who  closely  watch 
the  improvement  in  their  methods  of  life.  The  high 
standard  which  has  been  reached  by  the  Iroquois 
population  on  the  Grand  River  of  Ontario,  is  an 
indication  of  what  we  may  even  expect  in  the  course 
of  many  years  on  the  banks  of  the  many  rivers  of 
the  Northwest.  The  majority  of  the  tribes  in  Mani- 
toba and  the  Northwest — the  Crees  and  Blackfeet — 
belong  to  the  Algonquin  race,  and  the  Assiniboines 
or  Stonies,  to  the  Dacotahs  or  Sioux,  now  only 
found  on  the  other  side  of  the  frontier.  The  Tinneh 
or  Athabaskan  family  occupy  the  Yukon  and  Mac- 
kenzie valleys,  while  in  the  Arctic  region  are  the 
Eskimo  or  Innuits.  In  British  Columbia*  there  are 
at  least  eight  distinct  stocks;  in  the  interior,  Tin- 
neh, Salish  or  Shuswap  ;  on  the  coast,  Haida,  Ishim- 
sian,  Kwakiool  (including  Hailtzuk),  Bilhoola,  Aht, 

*  Dr.   Geo.  M.    Dawson,  F.R.S.,  has  given  me  this  division  of 
Indian  tribes. 


THE   liVDIAXS, 


403 


or  Nootka,  and  Kawitshiii,  the  latter  incliulin^  sev- 
eral names,  probably  of  Salisli  affinitN',  livini;  around 
the  Gulf  of  Georgia.  The  several  races  that  inhabit 
Canada,  the  Al^onc[uins,  the  1  luron-Irf)quois,  the 
Dacotah,  the  Tinneh,  antl  the  several  stocks  of  Ikit- 
ish  Columbia,  have  for  some  time  formed  an  inter- 
estin<(  study  for  scholars,  who  find  in  their  lan<;ua^es 
and  customs  much  valuable  arclueolojiical  and  ethno- 
loj^ical  lore.  The  total  number  of  Indians  that  now 
inliabit  the  whole  Dominion  is  estimated  at  over  one 
hundred  thousand  souls,  of  whom  one-third  live  in 
the  old  provinces. 


XXVII. 


COMPLETION    OF    THE    FEDERAL    UNION — MAKERS 

OF   THE     DOMINION. 

(1871-189I.) 

Within  three  years  after  the  formation  of  the 
new  province  of  Manitoba  in  the  Northwest,  Prince 
Edward  Island  and  British  Columbia  came  into  the 
confederation,  and  gave  completeness  to  the  federal 
structure.  Cook  and  Vancouver  were  among  the 
adventurous  sailors  who  carried  the  British  flag  to 
the  Pacific  province,  whose  lofty,  snow-clad  moun- 
tains, deep  bays,  and  many  islands  give  beauty, 
grandeur,  and  variety  to  the  most  glorious  scenery 
of  the  continent.  Daring  fur-traders  passed  down 
its  swift  and  deep  rivers  and  gave  them  the  names 
they  bear.  The  Hudson's  Bay  Company  held  sway 
for  many  years  within  the  limits  of  an  empire.  The 
British  Government,  as  late  as  1849,  formed  a  Crown 
colony  out  of  Vancouv^er,  and  in  1858,  out  of  the 
mainland,  previously  known  as  New  Caledonia.  In 
1866  the  two  provinces  were  united  with  a  simple 
form  of  government,  consisting  of  a  lieutenant-gov* 

404 


405 


406  THE    STORY  OF  CAXADA. 

ernor,  and  a  legislative  council,  partly  appointed  by 
the  Crown  and  partly  elected  by  the  people;  but  in 
1871,  when  it  entered  into  the  Canadian  union,  a 
complete  system  of  responsible  government  was 
established  as  in  the  other  provinces.  Prince 
Edward  Island  was  represented  at  the  Quebec  con- 
ference, but  it  remained  out  of  confederation  until 
1873,  when  it  came  in  as  a  distinct  province;  one  of 
the  conditions  of  admission  was  the  advance  of 
funds  by  the  Dominion  government  for  the  purchase 
of  the  claims  of  the  persons  who  had  held  the  lands 
of  the  island  for  a  century.  The  land  question  was 
always  the  disturbing  element  in  the  politics  of  the 
island,  whose  history  otherwise  is  singularly  uninter- 
esting to  those  who  have  not  had  the  good  fortune 
to  be  among  its  residents  and  to  take  a  natural 
interest  in  local  politics.  The  ablest  advocate  of 
confederation  was  Mr.  Edward  Whelan,  a  journalist 
and  politician  who  took  part  in  the  Quebec  confer- 
ence, but  did  not  live  to  see  it  carried  out  by  Mr.  J. 
C.  Pope,  Mr.  Laird,  and  others. 

With  the  successful  establishment  of  a  federal 
union  which  stretches  from  the  Gulf  of  St.  Law- 
rence to  the  Pacific  Ocean, — whose  tv/o  extremes  of 
east  and  w^est  are  linked  together  by  the  Inter- 
colonial and  Pacific  Raihvays — the  historical  portion 
of  this  book  properly  closes.  It  is  not  proposed  to 
enter  into  the  conflicts  of  political  parties,  w^hich 
have  been  too  often  carried  to  extremes  in  the  Do- 
minion, or  to  review  those  dominion  and  provincial 
questions  w^hich  make  up  the  politics  of  Canada. 

The  history  of  Canadian  politics  since  1867  has 


COMPLETION  OF   THE   FEDERAL    UA'IOX.     4O7 


been  mainly  a  record  of  conflict  between  Conserva- 
tives and  Liberals  for  the  supremacy;  of  differences 
of  opinion  with  respect  to  the  advantages  of  the 
system  of  protection,  established  by  the  Conserva- 


"^ 


W^W: 


T 


ONTARIO. 


QUEBEC. 


NEW   BRUNSWICK. 


NOVA   SCOTIA. 


in 


i 


^1S^ 


7      ^ 


MANITOBA. 


BRITISH   COLUMBIA. 


PARVUd  iuJBi  mCENTL 


PRINCE   EDWARD  ISLAND. 


ARMS  OF  THE  PROVINCES. 


tive  government  in  1879,  compared  with  a  mere 
revenue  tariff;  of  questions  arising  out  of  the  inter- 
pretation of  the  federal  constitution  ;  of  issues  deeply 
affecting  the  provincial,  racial,  or  religious  interests 
of  the  various  communities  that  compose  the  Do- 


40S  THE    STORY  CF  CANADA. 

minion.  Such  issues  cannot  form  any  part  of  a 
story  which  has  only  to  deal  with  those  epoch- 
makin<^  events  which,  for  nearly  three  centuries, 
have  had  most  influence  on  the  development  of  the 
Canadian  people  as  a  nation. 

Many  names  occur  to  the  student  as  he  reviews 
the  past  history  of  confederation,  but  there  are  a 
few  who,  beyond  all  others,  deservx^  the  meed  of 
praise  for  their  readiness  to  rise  above  the  narrow 
claims  of  provincialism  and  recognise  the  necessity 
of  a  broad  and  generous  patriotism.  As  I  have 
already  shown,  when  confederation  was  forced  on 
the  attention  of  Canadian  statesmen  from  Halifax 
to  Toronto,  the  situation  had  become  most  critical 
from  the  p(^int  of  view  of  provincial  government,  as 
\\^\\  as  from  the  point  of  view  of  national  security. 
The  destinies  of  old  Canada  were  virtuallv  in  the 
hands  of  three  men — the  Honourable  George  Brown, 
Sir  George  Cartier,  and  Sir  John  Macdonald,  to  give 
the  tw^o  latter  the  titles  they  received  at  a  later  time. 
Mr.  Hrown  was  mainly  responsible  for  the  difficulties 
that  had  made  the  conduct  of  government  practi- 
cally impossible,  through  his  persistent  and  even 
rude  assertion  of  the  claims  of  Upper  Canada  to 
larger  representation  and  more  consideration  in  the 
public  administration.  No  one  will  deny  his  con- 
summate ability,  his  inflexibility  of  purpose,  his 
impetuous  oratory,  and  his  financial  knowledge,  but 
his  earnestness  carried  him.  frequently  beyond  the 
limits  of  political  prudence,  and  it  was  with  reason 
that  he  was  called  "  a  governmental  impossibility," 
as  long  as  French  and   English  Canada  continued 


-#5^ 


409 


4 to  riiE  sroRY  of  caxada. 

pitted  agc*inst  each  other,  previous  to  the  union  of 
1867.  The  journal  which  he  conducted  with  so 
much  force,  attacked  French  Canada  and  its  insti- 
tutions with  great  violence,  and  the  result  was  the 
increase  of  racial  antagonisms.  Opposed  to  him 
was  Sir  George  Etienne  Cartier,  who  had  found  in 
the  Liberal-Conservative  party,  and  in  the  principles 
of  responsible  government,  the  means  of  strength- 
ening the  French  Canadian  race  and  making  it  a 
real  power  in  the  affairs  of  the  country.  Running 
throughout  his  character  there  was  a  current  of 
sound  sense  and  excellent  judgment  which  came  to 
the  surface  at  national  crises.  A  solution  of  diffi- 
culties, he  learned,  was  to  be  found  not  in  the 
violent  assertion  of  national  claims,  but  in  the  prin- 
ciples of  compromise  and  conciliation.  With  him 
was  associated  Sir  John  Macdonald,  the  most  suc- 
cessful statesman  that  Canada  has  yet  produced,  on 
account  of  his  loni:^  tenure  of  office  and  of  the  im- 
portance  of  the  measures  that  he  was  able  to  carry 
in  his  remarkable  career.  He  was  premier  of  the 
Dominion  from  1867  until  his  death  in  189 1,  with 
the  exception  of  the  four  years  of  the  administration 
of  the  Liberals  ( 1 873-1 878),  led  by  the  late  Mr. 
Alexander  Mackenzie,  who  had  raised  himself  from 
the  humble  position  of  stonemason  to  the  highest 
place  in  the  councils  of  the  country,  by  dint  of  his 
Scotch  shrewdness,  his  tenacity  of  purpose,  his  pub- 
lic honesty,  and  his  thorough  comprehension  of 
Canadian  questions,  though  he  was  w^anting  in 
breadth  of  statesmanship.  Many  generations  must 
pass  away  before  the  personal  and  political  merits  of 


y^  .  /#y^4*^563ip:^ 


411 


412  THE   STORY  OF  CAM  A  DA. 

Sir  John  Macdonald  can  be  advantageously  and  im- 
partially reviewed.  A  lawyer  by  i)rofession,  but  a 
politician  by  choice,  not  remarkable  for  originality 
of  conception,  but  possessing  an  unusual  capacity 
for  estimating  the  exact  conditions  of  public  senti- 
ment, and  for  moulding  his  policy  so  as  to  satisfy 
that  opinion,  having  a  perfect  understanding  of  the 
ambitions  and  weaknesses  of  human  nature,  believ- 
ing that  party  success  was  often  as  desirable  as  the 
triumph  of  any  great  principle,  ready  to  forget  his 
friends  and  purchase  his  opponents  when  political 
danger  was  imminent,  possessing  a  fascinating  man- 
ner, w^hich  he  found  very  useful  at  times  when  he 
had  to  pacify  his  friends  and  disarm  his  opponents, 
fully  comprehending  the  use  of  compromise  in  a 
country  of  diverse  nationalities,  having  a  firm  con- 
viction that  in  the  principles  of  the  British  constitu- 
tion there  was  the  best  guaranty  for  sound  political 
progress,  having  a  patriotic  confidence  in  the  ability 
of  Canada  to  hold  her  own  on  this  continent,  and 
become,  to  use  his  own  words,  a  **  nation  within  a 
nation," — that  is  to  say,  within  the  British  Empire 
— Sir  John  Macdonald  offers  to  »he  political  student 
an  example  of  a  remarkable  combination  of  strength 
and  weakness,  of  qualities  which  make  up  a  great 
statesman  and  a  mere  party  politician,  according  to 
the  governing  circumstances.  Happily  for  the  best 
interests  of  Canada,  in  the  case  of  confederation  the 
statesman  prevailed.  But  his  ambition  at  this  crisis 
would  have  been  futile  had  not  Mr.  Brown  con- 
sented to  unite  with  him  and  Cartier.  This  triple 
alliance   made   a   confederation   possible   on   tjrms 


MAKERS  OF   THE  DOMINION,  413 

acceptable  to  both  English  and  French  Canadians. 
These  three  men  were  the  representatives  of  the 
antagonistic  elements  that  had  to  be  reconciled  and 
cemented.  The  readiness  with  which  Sir  Charles 
Tupper  and  Sir  Leonard  Tiliey,  the  premiers  of 
Nova  Scotia  and  New  Brunswick,  co-operated 
with  the  statesmen  of  the  upper  provinces,  was  a 
most  opportune  feature  of  the  movement,  which 
ended  in  the  successful  formation  of  a  confeder- 
ation in  1867.  Although  the  Liberal  leaders  in 
Nova  Scotia,  Mr.,  afterwards  Sir,  Adams  Archi- 
bald, and  Mr.  Jonathan  McCully,  like  Brown, 
Howland,  Mowat,  and  McDougall  in  old  Canada, 
supported  the  movement  with  great  loyalty,  the 
people  of  the  province  were  aroused  to  a  passionate 
opposition  mainly  through  the  vigorous  action  of 
the  popular  leader,  Mr.  Joseph  Howe,  who  had 
been  an  eloquent  advocate  of  colonial  union  before 
it  assumed  a  practical  shape,  but  now  took  the 
strong  ground  that  the  question  should  not  be 
forced  on  the  country  by  a  legislature  which  had  no 
mandate  whatever  to  deal  with  it,  that  it  should  be 
determined  only  by  the  people  at  the  polls,  and 
that  the  terms  arranged  at  Quebec  were  unfair  to 
the  maritime  provinces.  Mr.  Howe  subsequently 
obtained  "  better  terms  "  for  Nova  Scotia  by  every 
available  means  of  constitutional  agitation — beyond 
which  he  was  never  willing  to  go,  however  great 
might  be  public  grievances — and  then  he  yielded  to 
the  inevitable  logic  of  circumstances,  and  entered 
the  Dominion  government,  where  he  remained  until 
he  became  lieutenant-governor  of  his  native  prov- 


4H  THE   STORY  OF  CANADA, 

incc.  The  feelings,  however,  he  aroused  against 
confederation  lasted  with  some  intensity  for  years, 
although  the  cry  for  repeal  died  away,  according  as 
a  new  generation  grew  up  in  place  of  the  one  which 
remembered  with  bitterness  the  struggles  of   1867. 

Mr.  George  Brown  died  from  the  wound  he 
received  at  the  hands  of  a  reckless  printer,  who  had 
been  in  his  employ,  and  Canadians  have  erected  to 
his  memory  a  noble  monument  in  the  beautiful 
Queen's  Park  (jf  the  city  where  he  lab(.)ured  so  long 
and  earnestly  as  a  statesman  and  a  journalist.  Sir 
George  Cartier  died  in  1873,  but  Sir  John  Macdon- 
ald  survived  his  firm  friend  for  eighteen  years,  and 
both  received  State  funerals.  Statues  of  Sir  John 
Macdonald  have  been  erected  in  the  cities  of  Mon- 
treal, Toronto,  Hamilton,  and  Kingston.  In  Ottawa 
on  one  side  of  the  Parliament  building  we  see  also  a 
statue  of  the  same  distinguished  statesman,  and 
on  the  other  that  of  his  great  colleague,  Sir  George 
Cartier.  It  was  but  fitting  that  the  statues  of  these 
most  famous  representatives  of  the  two  distinct  ele- 
ments of  the  Canadian  people  should  have  been 
placed  alongside  of  the  national  legislature.  They 
are  nationa,l  sentinels  to  warn  Canadian  people  of 
the  dangers  of  racial  or  religious  conflict,  and  to 
illustrate  the  advantages  of  those  principles  of  com- 
promise and  justice  on  which  both  Cartier  and  Mac- 
donald, as  far  as  they  could,  raised  the  edifice  of 
confederation. 


XXVIII. 

CANADA     AS     A     NATION  :     MATKklAL    AND    INTKL- 
LKCTUAL   DKVKLor.MKNT— I'OLIilCAL    KICHTS. 


The  population  of  the  whole  Dominion — still 
chiefly  confined  to  the  St.  Lawrence  valley  and  the 
Atlantic  provinces — does  not  yet  exceed  5,000,000 
souls,  thou^^h  it  has  increased  nearly  five  times  since 
1837.  Of  this  population,  1,300,000  are  h^rench 
Canadians;  the  majority  are  English,  Scotch,  and 
Irish.  At  least  2,000,000  profess  the  Roman  Cath- 
olic religion.  The  immigration  of  late  years  has 
been  very  insignificant,  and  has  been  practically 
nullified  bv  the  constant  movement  of  Canadians 
into  the  United  States — a  movement  which  has  been 
somewhat  decreasing  since  the  opening  up  of  the 
Northwest  and  the  greater  facilities  oftered  by  the 
Dominion  to  energy  and  enterprise.  Under  these 
conditions  the  natural-born  population  amounts  to 
about  85  per  cent,  of  the  whole.  The  people  of 
Canada  have  already  won  for  themselves  a  large 
amount  of  wealth  from  the  riches  of  the  land,  forest, 
and  seas,  and  an  aggregate  of  the  imports  and  ex- 

415 


4l6  77/A    STOA')'   OF  CAXADA, 

ports  now  reaches  §255,000,000  a  year,  or  an  increase 
of  §145,000,000  within  half  a  century.  The  North- 
west already  raises  upward  of  36,000,000  bushels  of 
wheat,  or  an  increase  of  18,000,000  in  five  years. 
Nearly  $360,000,000  are  invested  in  manufactures, 
chiefly  of  cotton  and  woollen  ^oods.  Some  fourteen 
lines  of  ocean  steamers  call  at  the  port  of  Montreal, 
which  has  now  a  population  of  over  250,000  souls. 
Toronto  comes  next  in  population,  about  190,000, 
whilst  the  other  cities,  like  Quebec,  Halifax,  St. 
John,  Ottawa,  Hamilton,  and  London,  rani^e  from 
70,000  to  30,000.  The  total  revenue  of  the  Domin- 
ion, apart  from  the  local  and  provincial  revenues,  is 
about  $36,000,000  a  year — against  only  $300,000  in 
1837 — raised  mainly  from  customs  and  excise  duties, 
which  are  high,  owing  to  the  "  national  "  or  protec- 
tive policy,  although  lower  than  those  on  similar 
goods  in  the  United  States.  The  expenditi'res  r^ 
Canada,  very  heavy  of  late  years  for  a  small  pop"l/- 
tion,  have  been  mainly  caused  by  the  development 
of  the  Dominion,  and  by  the  necessity  of  prov^iding 
rapid  means  of  hitercommunication  for  trade  and 
population  in  a  country  extending  between  two 
oceans.  Canals,  lighthouses,  the  acquisition  and 
opening  of  the  Northwest  railways,  government 
buildings,  have  absorbed  at  least  $240,000,000  since 
1867,  and  it  is  not  remarkable,  under  these  circum- 
stances, that  a  gross  debt  has  been  accumulated 
within  half  a  century  of  about  $315,000,000,  against 
which  must  be  set  valuable  assets  in  the  shape  of 
buildings  and  public  w^orks  necessary  to  the  progress 
of  a  new  country.     The  public  buildings,  churches, 


CANADA   AS  A    NATION,  417 

and  universities  display  within  a  quarter  of  a  century 
a  great  improvement  in  architectural  beauty,  whilst 
the  homes  of  the  people  show,  both  in  the  interior 
and  exterior,  decided  evidences  of  comfort,  con- 
venience, and  culture.  Instead  of  the  fourteen 
miles  of  railway  which  existed  in  1837,  there  are 
about  15,000  miles  in  actual  operation,  affording 
facilities  for  trade  and  commerce  not  exceeded  by 
any  country  in  the  world. 

The  mental  outfit  of  the  Dominion  compares 
favourably  even  with  that  of  older  countries.  The 
Universities  of  Canada — McGill  in  Montreal,  Laval 
in  Quebec,  Queen's  in  Kingston,  Dalhousie  in  Hal- 
ifax, and  Trinity  and  Toronto  Universities  in 
Toronto — stand  deservedly  high  in  the  opinion  of 
men  of  learning  in  the  Old  World  and  the  United 
States,  whilst  the  grammar  and  common  school  sys- 
tem, especially  of  Ontario,  is  creditable  to  the  keen 
sagacity  and  public  spirit  of  the  people.  We  have 
already  seen  the  low^  condition  of  education  of  fifty 
years  ago,  only  one  in  fifteen  at  school;  but  now 
there  are  1,000,000  pupils  in  the  educational  institu- 
tions of  the  country,  or  one  in  five,  at  a  cost  to  the 
people  of  upwards  of  $12,000,000,  contributed  for 
the  most  part  by  the  taxpayers  of  the  different  mu- 
nicipalities in  connection  with  which  the  educational 
system  is  worked  out.  In  Ontario  the  class  of 
school-houses  is  exceptionally  good,  and  the  appa- 
ratus excellent,  though  there  is  an  injurious  ten- 
dency to  bui'den  pupils  with  too  many  subjects, 
and  in  thai  w^ay  encourage  superficiality.  In 
French  Canada,  to  whose  progress  I  devote  a  special 


41 8  THE   STORY  OF  CANADA. 

chapter  in  view  of  its  exccj  ion.il  character  and 
influence  in  the  confederation,  there  is  an  essentially 
literary  activity.  The  intellectual  work  of  the 
English-speaking  people  has  been  chiefly  in  the  di- 
rection of  scientific,  constitutional,  and  historical 
literature,  in  which  departments  they  have  shown 
an  amount  of  knowledge  and  research  which  has 
won  for  many  of  them  laurels  outside  of  their  own 
country. 

The  working  out  of  a  system  of  government 
adapted  to  the  r.ecessities  of  countries  with  distinct 
interests  and  nationalities,  has  developed  in  Canada 
a  class  of  statesmen  and  writers  with  broad  national 
views  and  a  large  breadth  of  knowledge.  On  all 
occasions  when  men  have  risen  beyond  the  passion 
and  narrowness  of  party,  the  debates  of  the  legisla- 
ture have  been  distinguished  by  a  keenness  of  argu- 
ment and  by  a  grace  of  oratory — especially  in  the 
case  of  some  French  Canadians — which  would  be 
creditable  to  the  Senate  of  the  United  States  in  its 
palmy  days.  Any  one  who  reviews  the  twelve  vol- 
umes already  published  by  the  Royal  Society  of 
Canada,  founded  by  the  Marquis  of  Lome,  when 
governor-general,  will  see  how  much  scholarship 
and  ability  the  writers  of  Canada  bring  to  the  study 
of  scientific,  antiquarian,  and  historical  subjects. 
The  names  of  Todd,  Kingsford,  Scadding,  Read, 
Pope,  Stewart,  Patterson,  and  VVithrow  will  be 
recognised  by  Canadians  as  those  of  conscientious 
workers  in  history  and  constitutional  learning.  In 
science  the  names  of  Sir  William  Dawson,  Dr. 
George  M.   Dawson,  and  of  other  native  Canadians 


CANADA   AS  A   NATION.  419 

on  the  list  of  the  English  and  Canadian  Royal 
Societies  are  well  known  in  the  parent  state  and 
wherever  science  has  its  votaries  and  followers. 
The  poets,  William  Kirby,  Archbishop  O'Brien,  John 
Reade,  Charles  Roberts,  Bliss  Carman,  Frederick  J. 
Scott,  Pauline  Johnson,  Ethelwyn  Wetherald,  Archi- 
bald Lampman,  Duncan  Campbell  Scott,  James 
David  Edgar,  and  Wilfred  Campbell  have  won  recog- 
nition even  in  a  country  like  Canada,  where  still 
is  wanting  the  inspiration  of  a  wide  field  of  culture, 
and  of  that  generous  encouragement  which  can 
hardly  be  expected  in  a  country  of  prosaic  needs. 
Miss  Pauline  Johnson  is  the  child  of  an  English 
mother  and  a  head-chief  of  the  Mohawks  at  Brant- 
ford.  The  historical  novels  of  Major  Richardson, 
William  Kirby,  and  Gilbert  Parker,  show  the  rich 
materials  our  past  annals  offer  for  romance.  Mr. 
Parkers  enthusiasm,  for  his  theme  is  sustained  by  his 
bright,  attractive  style.  Sajn  S/ick's  Sayings  and 
Doings  is  still  the  only  noteworthy  evidence  we  have 
of  the  existence  of  humour  among  a  practical  people, 
and  his  **  wise  saws  "  and  "  sayings  "  were  uttered 
more  than  half  a  century  ago.  Yet,  on  the  whole,  if 
great  works  are  wanting  nowadays,  the  intellectual 
movement  is  in  the  right  direction,  and  according  as 
the  intellectual  soil  of  Canada  becomes  enriched  with 
the  progress  of  culture,  we  may  eventually  look  for 
a  more  generous  fruition. 

Canadian  art  has  hitherto  been  imitrtive,  rather 
than  creative,  though  of  late  years,  as  the  Chicago 
Exposition  proved,  Canadian  artists  have  produced 
several    pictures  which    show    an    individuality    of 


420  THE    STONY   OT  CANADA. 

expression,  colour,  feeling,  and  .i  knowledge  of  tech- 
nifjiie  which  illustrate  th^  influence  of  study  and 
experience  in  the  best  European  schools,  especially 
of  Paris.  The  names  of  L.  R.  O'Brien,  (jeorge 
Reid,  Hell-Smith,  Robert  Harris,  J.  W.  L.  T'orster, 
W.  Hrymner,  and  Miss  Bell  are  among  the  most 
notable  names  of  English  Canadian  artists.  The 
Marquis  of  Lome  and  the  Princess  Louise,  during 
their  residence  in  Canada,  did  much  to  stimulate 
a  wider  taste  for  .rt  by  the  establishment  of  a 
Canadian  academy,  and  the  h(;lding  of  annual 
exhibitions. 

Self-government  exists  in  the  full  sense  of  the 
term.  At  the  base  of  the  political  structure  lie 
those  municipal  institutions  which,  for  complete- 
ness, are  not  excelled  in  any  other  country.  It  is  in 
the  enterprising  province  of  Ontario  that  the  system 
has  attained  its  greatest  development.  The  machin- 
ery of  these  municipalities  is  used  in  Ontario  to  raise 
the  taxes  necessary  for  the  support  of  public  schools. 
Free  libraries  can  be  jjrovided  in  every  nnanicipality 
whenever  the  majority  of  the  taxi)ayers  choose. 
Then  we  go  u])  higher  to  the  pro^  ncial  organisa- 
tions governed  by  a  lieutenant-govern. or,  nominated 
and  removable  by  t!ie  government  of  the  Dominion, 
and  advised  by  -i  council  responsible  to  the  people's 
representatives,  with  a  legislature  composed,  in  only 
two  of  the  provinces,  of  two  houses — a  council  ap- 
pointed by  the  Crown,  and  an  elective  assembly;  in 
all  the  other  provinces,  there  is  simply  an  assembly 
chosen  by  the  people  on  a  very  liberal  franchise, 
manhood  suffrage  in  the  majority  of  cases.     Thg 


422  THE   STORY  OF  CANADA. 

fundamental  law,  or  the  British  North  America  Act 
of  1867,  gives  jurisdiction  to  the  provincial  govern- 
ments over  administration  of  justice  (except  in  crim- 
inal matters),  municipal,  and  all  purely  local  affairs. 
In  the  Territories,  not  yet  constituted  into  provinces, 
there  is  a  small  elective  bodv  or  house  who  select  a 
financial  committee  to  assist  the  lieutenant-governor. 
These  Territories  are  also  represented  in  the  two 
houses  of  the  Dominion  Parliament.  The  central  or 
general  government  of  the  Dominion  is  adminis- 
tered by  a  governor-general,  with  the  assistance  of  a 
ministry  responsible  to  a  Parliament,  composed  of  a 
Senate  appointed  by  the  Crown,  and  a  House  of 
Commons  elected  under  an  electoral  franchise,  prac- 
tically on  the  very  threshold  of  universal  suffrage. 
This  government  has  jurisdiction  over  trade  and 
commerce,  post-office,  militia  and  defence,  naviga- 
tion and  shipping,  fisheries,  railways  and  public  works 
of  a  Dominion  character,  and  all  other  matters  of  a 
general  or  national  import.  Education  is  under  the 
control  of  the  provincial  governments,  but  the  rights 
and  privileges  of  a  religious  minority  with  respect  to 
separate  or  denominational  schools  are  protected  by 
the  constitution.  The  common  law  of  England 
prevails  in  all  the  provinces  except  in  French  Can- 
ada, where  the  civil  law  still  existr..  The  criminal 
law  of  England  obtains  throughout  the  Dominion. 
The  central  government  appoints  all  the  judges,  who 
are  irremovable  except  for  cause.  Although  the 
constitution  places  in  the  central  government  the 
residue  of  all  powers,  not  expressly  given  to  the 
provincial  authorities,   conflicts  of  jurisdiction  are 


CANADA    AS  A    NATION,  423 

constantly  arising  between  the  general  and  local 
governments.  Such  questions,  however,  are  being 
gradually  settled  by  the  decisions  of  the  courts — the 
chief  security  of  a  written  constitution — although  at 
times  the  rivalry  of  parties  and  the  antagonisms  of 
distinct  nationalities  and  creeds  tend  to  give  special 
importance  to  certain  educational  and  other  matters 
which  arise  in  the  operation  of  the  constitution. 
All  these  are  perils  inseparable  from  a  federal  con- 
stitution governing  two  distinct  races. 

The  appointment  of  the  governor-general  by  the 
Crown,  the  power  of  disallowing  bills  which  may 
interfere  with  imperial  obligations,  and  the  right 
which  Canadians  still  enjoy  of  appealing  to  the 
judicial  committee  of  the  Queen's  Privy  Council 
from  the  subordinate  courts  of  the  provinces,  in- 
cluding the  Supreme  Court  of  Canada;  the  obliga- 
tion which  rests  upon  England  to  assist  the  colony 
in  the  time  of  danger  by  all  the  power  of  her  army  and 
fleet,  together  with  the  fact  that  all  treaties  with 
foreign  powers  must  be  necessarily  negotiated 
through  the  imperial  authorities,  will  be  considered 
as  the  most  patent  evidences  of  Canada  being  still  a 
dependency  of  the  Empire.  Even  the  restraint  im- 
posed upon  Canada  with  respect  to  any  matters 
involving  negotiations  with  foreign  powers  has  been 
modified  to  a  great  degree,  by  the  fact  that  England 
has  acknowledged  for  over  thirty  years  that  Canada 
should  be  not  only  consulted  in  every  particular,  but 
actually  represented  in  all  negotiations  that  may  be 
carried  on  with  foreign  powers  affecting  her  com- 
mercial or  territorial  interests.     A  notable  example 


424  THE   STORY  OF  CANADA. 

of  this  new  imperial  policy  was  the  Washington 
Convention  of  1 871,  which  settled  the  Alabama  and 
other  questions  of  difference  between  the  United 
States  and  Canada.  England  recognised  the  direct 
interest  of  the  Dominion  in  the  subjects  under  dis- 
cussion, by  the  selection  of  the  able  premier  of  the 
Liberal-Conservative  government,  Sir  John  Mac- 
donald,  as  one  of  the  commissioners.  The  most 
satisfactory  result  of  this  conference  was  the  ap- 
pointment of  a  commission  which,  after  full  delibera- 
tion, gave  Canada  and  Newfoundland  a  compensation 
of  five  millions  and  a  half  of  dollars  for  certain  con- 
cessions that  were  made  to  the  United  States  on  the 
valuable  fishing  grounds  of  Jkitish  North  America. 
In  the  diplomatic  discussions  between  England  and 
the  United  States  as  a  sequence  of  the  seizure  of 
Canadian  vessels  engaged  in  catching  seals  in  the 
open  waters  of  ik'ring  Sea,  the  English  Government 
was  largely  influenced  by  the  opinions  of  the  Can- 
adian ministry  in  lelation  to  a  matter  affecting 
Dominion  interests. 

One  of  the  members  of  the  court  of  arbitration, 
which  assembled  at  Paris  in  i8c  _  and  decided  the 
question  at  issue  in  accordance  Wxth  the  principles 
of  international  law,  fought  for  by  the  British  and 
Canadian  governments,  was  Sir  John  Thompson,  an 
able  lawyer  of  Nova  Scotia,  who  became  premier  of 
the  Dominion  soon  after  the  death  of  Sir  John  Mac- 
donald,  and  was  himself  struck  down  only  a  few 
months  after  the  settlement  of  the  Bering  Sea  ques- 
tion, when  summoned  to  Windsor  Castle  to  take 
before  the  Queen  the  oath  of  a  privy  councillor  of 


CANADA   AS  A   NATION,  425 

England — a  dramatic  close  to  a  short  though  excep- 
tionally successful  career. 

It  was  an  imperial  man-of-war  that  brought  the 
remains  of  Sir  John  Thompson  to  the  city  of  Hali- 
fax, where  representatives  of  all  parts  of  Canada 
buried  them  vv  ith  honours  which  few  statesmen  have 
ever  received.  This  tribute  of  respect  was  due  to  a 
Canadian  statesman  whose  appointment  on  the  Paris 
arbitration  was  a  direct  acknowledgment  of  the  im- 
portance of  Canada  in  imperial  councils.  With  the 
national  development  of  Canada  the  conditions  of 
the  relations  between  England  and  Canada  are  such 
as  to  ensure  unity  of  policy  so  long  as  each  govern- 
ment considers  the  interests  of  England  and  of  the 
dependency  as  identical,  and  keeps  ever  in  view  the 
obligations,  welfare,  and  unity  of  the  Empire  at 
large. 


XXIX. 


FRK.\(  II     CANADA. 


As  tills  sUny  coniincncccl  with  a  survey  from  the 
hei^iits  of  (Jueljec  of  tlie  Dominion  of  Canada  from 
ocean  to  ocean,  so  now  may  it  fitly  ch)se  with  a 
re\  ieu  of  tiie  condition  of  the  hrench  Canadian 
people  who  still  inhabit  the  valley  of  the  St.  Law- 
rence, and  whose  history  is  contem[)orane()us  with 
that  of  the  ancient  cit\'  whose  picturescpie  walls  and 
buildini^s  recall  the  designs  of  I'rench  ambition  on 
tliis  continent. 

ThouLrh  the  fortifications  of  Louisbonr^  and  Ti- 
condero^^i,  of  Niagara,  Frontenac,  and  other  historic 
])laces  of  the  J^^'encli  regime  in  America  have  been 
razed  to  the  i^round,  and  the  I^'rench  fla^^  is  never 
seen  in  the  valley  o^  the  St.  Lawrence,  except  on 
some  holiday  in  company  with  other  national  col- 
ours, nevertheless  on  the  continent  where  she  once 
thoui^ht  to  reign  su])reme,  I^^ ranee  has  been  able  to 
leave  a  permanent  impress.  But  this  impress  is  not 
in  the  valley  of  the  Mississippi.  It  is  true  that  a 
number  of  French  still  live  on  the  banks  of  the  great 
river,   that  many  a  little  village  where  a   French 

426 


I- 


7. 

U 


r-. 


4^8  THE  STOA'V  OF  CAXA/U. 

patois  is  spoken  lies  hidden  in  the  sequestered 
bayous  of  the  South,  and  that  no  part  of  the  old 
city  of  New  Orleans  possesses  so  much  interest  for 
the  European  stran^^er  as  tlie  French  or  Creole  quar- 
ter, with  its  quaint  balconied  houses  and  luxuriant 
j^ardens;  but  despite  all  this,  it  is  <^enerally  admitted 
that  the  time  is  not  far  distant  when  the  French 
lan^^uaj^e  will  disapi)ear  from  Louisiana,  and  few 
evidences  will  be  found  of  the  days  of  the  French 
occupancy  of  that  beautiful  State  of  the  Union. 
On  the  b.inks  of  the  St.  Lawrence,  however,  France 
has  left  behind  her  what  seem  likely  to  be  more  per- 
manent memorials  of  her  occupation.  The  pictu- 
rescjue  banks  of  the  St.  Lawrence,  from  the  Atlantic 
to  the  great  lakes  of  the  West,  are  the  home  of  a 
larfje  and  rapidly  increasing  population  whose  lan- 
guage and  customs  are  so  many  memorials  of  the 
old  regime  whose  history  has  taken  up  so  many 
pages  of  this  story. 

The  tourist  who  travels  through  the  province  of 
Quebec  sees  on  all  sides  the  evidence  that  he  is 
passing  through  a  country  of  French,  origin.  Here 
and  there  in  Quebec  and  Montreal,  or  in  some  quiet 
village  sequestered  in  a  v^alley  or  elevated  on  the 
Laurentian  Hills,  he  sees  houses  and  churches  which 
remind  him  of  many  a  hamlet  or  town  he  has  visited 
in  Brittany  or  Normandy.  The  language  is  French 
from  the  Saguenay  to  the  Ottawa,  and  in  some 
remote  communities  even  now  English  is  never 
spoken,  and  is  understood  only  by  the  cur6  or 
notary.  Nor  is  the  language  so  impure  or  degener- 
ated as  many  persons  may  naturally  suppose.     On 


y 


A 

'■J 

X 
'•J 
y. 


■< 
y. 


H 


43<^  THE  STORY  OF  CANADA. 

the  contrary,  it  is  spoken  by  the  educated  classes 
with  a  purity  not  excelled  in  France  itself.  The 
better  class  of  French  Canadians  take  pride  in  study- 
ing the  language  of  the  country  of  thei**  ancestors, 
and  are  rarely  guilty  of  Anglicisms,  though  these 
have  necessarily  crept  into  the  common  parlance  of 
mixed  communities,  where  people  are  forced  to 
speak  both  French  and  English.  In  some  rural  dis- 
tricts, isolated  from  large  towns,  the  people  retain 
the  language  as  it  was  spoken  two  centuries  ago — 
though  without  the  accent  of  the  old  provinces  of 
their  origin — and  consequently  many  words  and 
phrases  which  are  rarely  now  heard  in  France,  still 
exist  among  the  peasantry  of  French  Canada,  just 
as  we  find  in  New  England  many  expressions  which 
are  not  pure  Americanisms  but  really  memorials  of 
old  English  times,  in  French  Canada  the  Angli- 
cisms are  such  as  occur  under  the  natural  condition 
of  things.  The  native  of  old  France  has  no  words 
for  "clearing"  the  forest,  making  maple  sugar, 
blazing  "  a  way  through  the  woods  or  over  the  ice 
and  snow  of  the  rivers  and  lakes,  and  consequently 
the  vocabulary  of  the  French  Canadian  has  been 
considerably  enlarged  by  local  circumstances.  In 
the  summer  resorts  of  the  lower  St.  Lawrence  the 
influence  of  the  English  visitors,  now  very  numerous, 
is  becoming  more  evident  every  year,  and  French 
habits  are  becoming  modified  and  the  young  folks 
commence  to  speak  English  fairly  well.  Away  from 
the  St.  Lawrence,  however,  and  the  path  of  the 
tourists,  the  French  Canadians  ^main,  relatively 
speaking,  untouched  by  English  v "  toms, 


FRENCH  CANADA.  43  I 

Nos  institutions,  notrc  langnc,  ct  nos  lois  has  been 
the  key-note  of  French  Canadian  poHtics  for  over  a 
century.  At  the  present  time  the  records  and  stat- 
utes of  the  Dominion  are  always  given  in  the  two 
languages,  and  the  same  is  true  of  all  motions  put 
by  the  Speaker.  Though  the  reports  of  the  debates 
appear  daily  in  French,  English  prevails  in  the 
House  of  Commons  and  in  the  Senate.  The  French 
Canadians  are  forced  to  speak  the  language  of  the 
majority,  and  it  is  som-s  evidence  of  the  culture  of 
their  leading  public  men,  that  many  among  them — 
notably  Mr.  Laurier,  the  eloquent  leader  of  the 
Liberals,  and  first  French  Canadian  premier  since 
1867 — are  able  to  express  themselves  in  English 
with  a  freedom  and  elegance  which  no  English- 
speaking  member  can  pretend  to  equal  in  French. 
In  the  legislature  of  the  province  of  Quebec,  French 
has  almost  excluded  English,  though  the  records 
are  given  in  the  two  languages.  In  the  supreme 
cou^t  of  the  Dominion  the  arguments  may  be  in 
French,  and  the  two  Quebec  judges  give  their  deci- 
sions in  their  own  tongue. 

The  people  oi  P^rench  Canada  are  very  devout 
Roman  Catholics.  The  numerous  churches,  col- 
leges, and  convents  of  the  country  attest  the  power 
and  wealth  of  the  Church,  and  the  desire  of  the 
French  Canadians  to  glorify  and  perpetuate  it  by 
every  means  in  their  power.  The  whole  land  is 
practically  parcelled  out  among  the  saints,  as  far  as 
the  nomenclature  of  the  settlements  and  villages  is 
concerned.  The  favourite  saint  appears  to  be  Ste. 
Anne,  whose  name  appears  constantly  on  the  banks 


432  THE  STORY  OF  CAXaDA. 

of  the  St.  Lawrence.  We  have  Ste.  Anne  dc  la 
Perade,  Ste.  Anne  de  la  Pocatiere,  and  many  others. 
We  all  remember  the  verse  of  Moore's  boat  song  : 

**  Faintly  as  tolls  the  evening  chime, 
Our  voices  keep  tune  and  our  oars  keep  time, 
Soon  as  the  woods  on  shore  look  dim, 
We  '11  sing  at  St.  Anne's  our  parting  hymn." 

This  village,  situated  at  the  confluence  of  the  St. 
Lawrence  and  Ottawa  rivers,  is  generally  known  as 
Ste.  Anne  de  Bellevue,  and  still  retains  some  of 
the  characteristics  of  a  French  Canadian  village, 
notwithstanding  its  close  neighbourhood  to  the  Eng- 
lish-speaking settlements  of  Ontario.  Jesuits,  Sulpi- 
cians,  and  Recollets  have  done  much  to  mould  the 
thought  and  control  the  political  destiny  of  the 
people  under  their  spiritual  care.  The  universities, 
colleges,  and  schools  are  mainly  directed  by  the 
religious  orders.  The  priests,  as  this  story  has 
shown,  have  been  very  active  and  conscientious 
workers  from  the  earliest  days  of  Canadian  history. 

Canada,  too,  has  her  Notre  Dame  de  Lourdes,  to 
whose  shrine  the  faithful  flock  by  thousands.  Some 
twenty  miles  east  of  Quebec,  on  the  banks  of  the 
St.  Lawrence,  is  the  church  of  Ste.  Anne  de  Beau- 
pre,  or,  as  the  Saint  is  more  particularly  known,  La 
bonne  Ste.  Anne,  who  has  won  fame  in  Canada  for 
miraculous  cures  for  two  centuries  at  least. 

This  historic  place  rests  under  the  shelter  of  a 
lofty  mountain  of  the  Laurentides,  on  a  little  pla- 
teau which  has  given  it  the  name  of  the  "  beautiful 
meadow."     The  village  itself  consists  of  a  strag- 


C 


V. 


a: 


< 


'A 
y. 


CO 


434  THE   STORY  OF  CAXADA, 

gling  street  of  wooden  houses,  with  steep  roofs  and 
projecting  eaves,  nearly  all  devoted  to  the  entertain- 
ment of  the  large  assemblage  that  annually  resorts 
to  this  Canadian  Mecca,  probably  some  sixty  thou- 
sand in  the  course  of  the  summer.  Here  you  will 
see  on  the  fete  of  Ste.  Anne,  and  at  otl»er  fixed 
times,  a  mass  of  people  in  every  variety  of  cos- 
tume, Micmacs,  Hurons,  and  Iroquois — representa- 
tives of  the  old  Indian  tribes  of  Canada — French 
Canadians,  men,  women,  and  children,  from  the  val- 
leys of  the  Ottawa,  and  the  St.  Maurice,  and  all 
parts  of  Quebec,  as  well  as  tourists  from  the  United 
States.  The  handsome  grey  stone  church — now 
dignified  as  a  "  basilica  " — which  has  been  built  of 
late  years,  attests  the  faith  of  many  thousands  who 
have  offered  their  supplications  at  the  shrine  of  La 
bonne  Stc.  Anne  for  centuries.*  Piles  of  crutches 
of  every  description,  of  oak,  of  ash,  of  pine,  are  de- 
posited in  every  available  corner  as  so  many  votive 
offerings  from  the  countless  cripples  that  claim  to 
have  been  cured  or  relieved.  The  relic  through 
which  all  the  wonderful  cures  are  said  to  be  effected, 
consists  of  a  part  of  the  finger  bone  of  Ste.  Anne, 
which  was  sent  in  1668  by  the  Chapter  of  Carcas- 
sonne to  Monseigneur  de  Laval.  The  church  also 
possesses  several  pictures  of  merit,  one  of  them  by 
Le  Brun,  presented  by  the  Viceroy  Tracy  in  1666. 
The  situation  of  many  of  the  French  Canadian 

*  The  illustrati  1  icpresents  the  ancient  church  which  was  built  in 
1658,  but  was  taken  down  a  few  years  ago  on  account  of  its  danger- 
ous condition,  and  rebuilt  on  the  old  site  near  the  basilica,  in  exactly 
the  original  form  with  the  same  materials. 


hKENCU  CANADA.  435 

villages  is  exceedingly  picturesque,  when  they  nestle 
in  some  quiet  nook  by  the  side  of  a  river  or  bay,  or 
overlook  from  some  prominent  hill  a  noble  panorama 
of  land  and  water.  The  spire  of  the  stone  church 
rises  generally  from  the  midst  of  the  houses,  and  the 
priest's  residence  or  presbytere  is  always  the  most 
comfortable  in  size  and  appearance.  The  houses  are 
for  the  most  part  built  of  wood.  The  roofs  are  fre- 
quently curved,  with  projecting  eaves,  which  afford 
a  sort  of  verandah  under  which  the  family  sit  in  sum- 
mer evenings.  Some  of  the  most  pretentious  struc- 
tures, especially  the  inns,  have  balconies  running 
directly  across  the  upper  story.  Many  of  the  barns 
and  outhouses  have  thatched  roofs,  which  are  never 
seen  in  any  other  part  of  Canada.  The  interiors  are 
very  plainly  furnished,  in  many  cases  with  chairs 
and  tables  of  native  manufacture.  A  high  iron 
stove  is  the  most  important  feature  of  every  dwell- 
ing in  a  country  where  the  cold  of  winter  is  so  ex- 
treme. Whitewash  is  freely  used  inside  and  outside, 
aiTd  there  is  on  the  whole  an  air  of  cleanliness  and 
comfort  in  the  humblest  cottage. 

The  loom  is  still  kept  busy  in  some  villages,  and  a 
coarse,  warm  homespun  is  even  yet  made  for  every- 
day use.  The  habitant  also  wears  in  winter  moccas- 
ins and  a  tuque  bleiie,  or  woollen  cap,  in  which  he  is 
always  depicted  by  the  painter  of  Canadian  scenes. 
But  with  the  grow^th  of  towns  and  the  development 
of  the  railway  system  a  steady  change  is  occurring 
year  by  year  in  the  dress  of  the  inhabitants,  and  it 
is  only  in  the  very  remote  settlements  that  we  can 
find  the  homely  stuffs  of  former  times.     Old  dresses 


436  THE   STORY  OF  CANADA. 

and  old  customs  arc  Ljradually  disapi)carin<jj  with  the 
old-fashioiicd  calcchc,  in  which  tourists  once  strug- 
gled to  admire  I'rench  Canadian  scenes.  As  a  rule, 
however,  the  peo|)le  live  very  economically,  and 
extravaj^ance  in  dress  is  rather  the  exception.  On 
<;ala  days  the  youni,^  wear  many  ribbons  and  colours, 
thouirh  arran<fed  with  little  of  the  taste  characteris- 
tic  of  the  French  people.  Both  old  and  young  are 
very  sociable  in  their  habits,  and  love  music  and 
dancing.  The  \iolin  is  constantly  pla\'ed  in  the 
smallest  village,  and  the  young  people  dance  old- 
fashioned  cotillons  or  danscs  roudcs.  The  priests, 
however,  do  not  encourage  reckless  gaieties  or  extrav- 
agance in  dress.  Now  and  then  the  bishop  issues  a 
Pastoral  in  which  the  waltz  and  other  fast  dances, 
and  certain  fashi(^nable  modes  of  dress,  are  expressly 
forbidden,  and  though  liis  mandates  are  no  doubt 
soon  forgotten  in  the  cities  and  towns,  they  are,  on 
the  whole,  religiously  observed  in  the  rural  commu- 
nities. The  feasts  of  the  Church  are  kept  with  great 
zeal,  -especially  the  fetes  d' obligation — and  conse- 
quently the  French  Canadian  has  holidays  without 
number. 

No  class  of  the  population  of  Canada  is  more 
orderly  or  less  disposed  to  crime  than  the  French 
Canadians.  The  standard  of  the  moralitv  of  the 
people  is  high.  Early  marriages  have  been  always 
encouraged  by  the  priests,  and  large  families — fifteen 
children  being  very  common — are  the  rule  in  the 
villages.  The  Jiabitant  is  naturally  litigious,  and  the 
amount  in  dispute  is,  in  his  opinion,  trifling  com- 
pared with  the  honour  of  having  a  case  in  court, 


tfi 

u: 

'?. 
H 

C 

•J 

o 

O 

u 

X 

u 

< 
u 

>'. 

< 

< 


en 


43^  THE   STONY  OF  CAX  A  DA 

which  demands  the  attendance  of  the  whole  village. 
The  temperate  habits  of  the  French  Canadian  make 
them  necessarily  valuable  employes  in  mills  and 
manufactories  of  all  kinds.  Indeed,  they  prefer  this 
life  to  that  of  the  farm,  and  until  very  recently  there 
was  a  steady  exodus  of  this  class  to  the  manufactur- 
ing towns  of  Lowell,  Holyoke,  and  other  places  in 
New  En<^dand.  A  lar^e  proportion  of  the  men  em- 
ployed in  the  lumberin<^  industry  of  Canada  is  drawn 
from  the  province  of  Quebec.  As  their  forefathers 
were  courcurs  dc  bois  in  the  days  of  the  French 
regime,  and  hunted  the  beaver  in  the  wilderness, 
even  venturing  into  the  illimitable  Northwest  region, 
so  in  these  modern  times  the  French  Canadians  seek 
the  vast  pine  woods  which,  despite  axe  and  fire,  still 
stretch  over  a  large  area  watered  by  the  Ottawa  and 
other  rivers. 

In  commercial  and  financial  enterprise,  the  French 
Canadians  cannot  compete  with  their  fellow-citizens 
of  British  origin,  who  practically  control  the  great 
commercial  undertakings  and  banking  institutions 
of  Lower  Canada,  especially  in  Montreal.  Gener- 
ally speaking,  the  French  Canadians  cannot  com- 
pare with  the  English  population  as  agriculturists. 
Their  province  is  less  favoured  than  Ontario  with 
respect  to  climate  and  soil.  The  French  system  of 
sub-dividing  farms  among  the  members  of  a  family 
has  tended  to  cut  up  the  land  unprofitably,  and  it  is 
a  curious  sight  to  see  the  number  of  extremely  nar- 
row lots  throughout  the  French  settlements.  It 
must  be  admitted,  too,  that  the  French  population 
has  less  enterprise,  and  less  disposition  to  adopt  new 


PK/:XC//  CAXAD.t.  439 

machines   and    improved    agricultural    implements, 
than  the  people  of  the  other  provinces. 

As  a  rule,  the  habitant  lives  contentedly  on  very 
little.  Give  him  a  pipe  of  native  tobacco,  a  chance 
of  discussing  politics,  a  gossip  with  his  fellows  at  the 
church  door  after  service,  a  visit  now  and  then  to 
the  county  town,  and  he  will  be  happy.  It  does  not 
take  much  to  amuse  him,  while  he  is  quite  satisfied 
that  his  spiritual  safety  is  secured  as  long  as  he  is 
within  sound  of  the  church  bells,  goes  regularly  to 
confession,  and  observes  all  the  fetes  (foh/igatio?i. 
If  he  or  one  of  his  family  can  only  get  a  little  office 
in  the  municipality,  or  in  the  "  government,"  then 
his  happiness  is  nearly  perfect.  Indeed,  if  he  were 
not  a  bureaucrat,  he  would  very  much  belie  his 
French  origin.  Take  him  all  in  all,  however,  Jean- 
Baptiste,  as  he  is  familiarly  known,  from  the  patron 
saint  of  French  Canada,  has  many  excellent  quali- 
ties. He  is  naturally  polite,  steady  in  his  habits, 
and  conservative  in  his  instincts.  He  is  excitable 
and  troublesome  only  when  his  political  passions 
are  thoroughly  aroused,  or  his  religious  principles 
are  at  stake ;  and  then  it  is  impossible  to  say  to  what 
extreme  he  will  go.  Like  the  people  from  whom  he 
is  descended — many  of  whose  characteristics  he  has 
never  lost  since  his  residence  of  centuries  on  the 
American  continent — he  is  greatly  influenced  by 
matters  of  feeling  and  sentiment,  and  the  skilful 
master  of  rhetoric  has  it  constantly  in  his  power  to 
sway  him  to  an  extent  which  is  not  possible  in  the 
case  of  the  stronger^  less  impulsive  Saxon  race,  with 
whom  reason  and  argument  prevail  to  a  large  degree. 


440  THE  S  TOR  V  Oh   CA  XA  DA  . 

In  the  present,  as  in  the  past,  the  Church  makes 
every  effort  to  supervise  with  a  zealous  care  the 
iriLMital  food  that  is  offered  for  the  nourishment  of 
the  people  in  the  rural  districts,  where  it  exercises 
the  <,rreatcst  intluencc.  Agnosticism  is  a  word  prac- 
tically unknown  in  the  vocabulary  of  the  I'^rench 
Canadian  habitant,  who  is  quite  ready  to  adiiere 
without  wavcriuj^  to  the  old  belief  which  his  fore- 
fathers professed.  Whilst  the  French  Canadians 
doubtless  lose  little  by  refusing  to  listen  to  the 
teachings  which  would  destroy  all  old-established 
and  venerable  institutions,  and  lead  them  into  an 
unknown  country  of  useless  speculation,  they  do 
not,  as  a  rule,  allow  their  minds  sufficient  scope  and 
expansion.  It  is  true  that  a  new  generation  is  grow- 
ing up  with  a  larger  desire  ff)r  philosophic  inquiry 
and  speculation.  J^ut  whilst  the  priests  continue  to 
control  the  public  school  system  of  the  province, 
they  have  a  powerful  means  of  maintaining  the  cur- 
rent of  popular  thought  in  that  conservative  and  too 
often  narrow  groove,  in  which  they  have  always 
laboured  to  keep  it  since  the  days  of  Laval. 

It  is  obvious,  however,  to  a  careful  observer  of  the 
recent  history  of  the  country  that  there  is  more 
independence  of  thought  and  action  showing  itself 
in  the  large  centres  of  population — even  in  the  rural 
communities — and  that  the  people  are  beginning  to 
understand  that  they  should  be  left  free  to  exercise 
their  political  rights  without  direct  or  undue  inter- 
ference on  the  part  of  their  spiritual  advisers.  Eng- 
lish ideas  in  this  respect  seem  certainly  to  be  gaining 
ground. 


'"-:S!«-^IBv'«e^^^^-"-''^?!^'-*T**'"^^  ..lyKKTiVV^^^"'' 


LOUIS   FRKCHETTE. 


4V 


442  TIfE   STONY  or  CAA'ADA. 

In  the  clays  of  the  P"*rench  r<5<^ime  there  was  nec- 
essarily no  native  literature,  and  little  general  cul- 
ture except  in  small  select  circles  at  Ouebec  and 
Montreal.  i^ut  during;  the  past  half  century,  with 
the  increase  of  wealth,  the  dissemination  of  liberal 
education,  ami  the  develo|)ment  of  self-j^overnment, 
the  h'rench  Canadians  have  created  for  themselves 
a  literature  which  shows  that  they  inherit  much 
of  the  spirituality  ami  brilliancy  of  their  race.  Their 
histories  and  poems  have  attracted  much  attenti(^n 
in  literary  circles  in  Trance,  and  one  poet,  Mr.  Louis 
Frechette,  has  won  the  hii;lu'st  prize  of  the  hVench 
Institute  for  the  best  poem  of  the  year.  In  history 
we  have  the  names  of  (iarncau,  h'erland,  Suite, 
Tasse,  Cas^rain  ;  in  ])oetry,  Cremazie,  Chauveau, 
Fr^'chette,  Poisson,  Lemay ;  in  science,  Ilamel,  La- 
flamme,  De  Foville ;  besides  many  others  famed  as 
savants  and  litterateurs.  In  art  some  progress  has 
been  made,  and  several  youn<;  men  c^o  to  the  l\iris 
schools  from  time  to  time.  The  only  sculptor  of 
original  merit  that  Canada  has  yet  produced  is 
Ilebert,  a  h'rcnch  C'iinadian,  whose  monuments  of 
eminent  Canadians  stand  in  several  public  ])laces. 
Science  has  not  made  so  much  progress  as  belles- 
lettres  and  historv%  though  Laval  University — the 
principal  educatiomd  institution  of  the  highest  class 
— has  among  its  professors  men  who  show  some  cred- 
itable work  in  mathematics,  geology,  and  ph}'sics. 
In  romance,  however,  very  little  has  been  done. 

The  rVench  Canadians  have  a  natural  love  for 
poetry  and  music.  Indeed  it  is  a  French  Canadian 
by  birth  and  early  education — Madame  Albani — who 


/•A'/^AC//   C.tXADA.  443 

lias  of  late  years  won  a  hij^h  tlistinction  on  the  op- 
eratic sta^e.  No  writer  of  this  nationality,  hcnvcver, 
has  yet  produced  an  opera  or  a  drama  which  has  won 
fame  for  its  autiior.  The  priestiiood,  indeed,  has 
been  a  persistent  enemy  of  the  theatre,  whicii  con- 
se([uently  has  never  .attained  a  successful  foothold  in 
I^Vench  Canad  i.  Sacred  music,  so  essential  a  feature 
of  a  Roman  Catholic  service,  has  been  always  culti- 
vated with  success. 

The  c/tnfisoHS  f^of^n/trirrs,  whirli  have  been  so  lon^ 
in  vo<rui!  amouL^  the  people  of  all  classes  in  the  prov- 
ince of  (Juebec  are  the  same  in  spirit,  and  very  fre- 
fpiently  in  words,  as  those  which  their  ancestors 
brought  over  with  them  from  Hrittany,  Normandy, 
Saint onc^e,  and  h'ranche-Comt(^'.  Some  have  been 
adapted  to  Canadian  scenery  and  associations,  but 
most  of  them  are  essentially  Kuropean  in  allusion 
and  spirit.  The  Canadian  lumberer  amon;^  the  pines 
of  the  (Ottawa  and  its  tributaries,  the  Mi'fis  or  half- 
breeds  of  what  was  once  the  ^reat  Lone  Land,  still 
sinjT  snatches  of  the  soni^s  which  the  lourcnrs  dc  bois, 
who  followed  Duluth  and  other  I'rench  explorers, 
were  wont  to  sin^  as  they  paddled  over  the  rivers  of 
the  West  or  camped  beneath  the  pines  and  the 
maples  of  the  great  forests.  It  is  impossible  to  set 
the  words  of  all  of  them  to  the  music  of  the  drawing- 
room,  where  they  seem  tame  and  meaningless;  but 
when  they  mingle  with  "  the  solemn  sough  of  the 
forest,"  or  with  the  roar  of  rushing  waters,  the  air 
seems  imbued  with  the  spirit  of  the  surroundings. 
It  has  been  well  observed  by  M.  Gagnon,  a  French 
Canadian,   that  "  many  of  them  have  no    beauty 


444 


The  stoky  of  CANAhA, 


except    on  the  lips  of    the   peasantry."     There   is 
sometliin^  sad  and  soft  in  the  voices  that  imparts 
a  peculiar  charm  to  these  monolonous  airs,  in  which 
their  whole  existence  seems  to  he  reflected." 

J  ^ive  below  the  most  popular  and  poetical  of  all 
the  Canadian  ballads,  and  at  the  same  time  a  trans- 
lation by  a  Canadian  writer:* 


A  T.A  CLAIKi:  FONTAINE. 


TRANSLATION. 


A  la  claire  fontaiiie 

M'en  allaiit  proinciuT, 

J'ai  trouvc  I'tau  si  belle 

Que  je  m'y  suis  baignt'. 

\a\\  ya  loufjtemps  (|iie  je  t'aime, 

Jamais  je  ne  t'oublierai. 


Down  to  the  crystal  streamlet 

I  strayed  at  close  of  day  ; 

Into  its  limpid  waters 

I  plunged  without  delay. 

I  've  loved  thee  long  and  dearly, 

I  '11  love  thee,  sweet,  for  aye. 


J'ai  trouve  I'eau  si  belle 
Que  je  in'y  suis  baigne, 
Kt  c'est  au  pied  d'un  chcne 
Que  je  m'suis  repose. 


Into  its  limpid  waters 
I  jjlunged  without  <lelay  ; 
Then  'mid  the  flowers  springing 
At  the  oak-tree's  foot  1  lay. 


Et  c'est  au  ])ied  d'un  chcne 
Que  je  m'>uis  repose  ; 
Sur  la  plus  hnute  branche 
Le  rossigiiol  chantait. 


Then  'mid  the  flowers  springing 
At  the  oak-tree's  foot  I  Liy  ; 
Sweet  the  nightingale  was  singing 
High  on  the  topmost  spray. 


Sur  la  plus  haute  branche 
Le  rossignol  chantait  ; 
C'hante,  rossignol,  thante, 
Toi  qui  as  le  cteur  gai. 


Sweet  the  nightingale  was  singing 
High  on  the  topmost  spray  ; 
Sweet  bird  !  keep  ever  singing 
Thy  song  with  heart  .so  gay. 


Chante,  rossignol,  chante, 
Toi  qui  as  le  cceur  gai  ; 
Tu  as  le  creur  a  rire, 
Moi  je  I'ai-t  a  pleurer. 


Sweet  bird  !  keep  ever  singing 
Thy  song  with  heart  so  gay  ; 
Thy  heart  was  made  for  laughter, 
My  heart  's  in  tears  to-day. 


♦  Songs  of  Cli  Canada,     Translated  by  W.  McLennan, 


Fh'hXCJ/  CANADA. 


44S 


Tu  as  Ic  cdur  ;i  rire, 
M(»i  jc  I'ai-t  a  jileurer  ; 
J'ai  perdu  ma  inaitresse 
Sajis  jKJuvoir  la  trouvcr. 

J'ai  perdu  ma  maltrcsse 
Sans  jiouvoir  la  trouver  ; 
Pour  uii  bouquet  de  roses 
Que  jc  lui  refusal  ; 

Pour  un  bouquet  de  roses 
(^ue  je  lui  refusal  ; 
Je  voudrais  (|ue  la  rose 
Fut  encore  au  rosier. 


Je  voudrais  que  la  rose 

Flit  encore  au  rosier. 

Ft  que  le  rosier  meine 

Flit  dans  la  mer  jete. 

Lui  ya  longtenips  que  jc  t'aime, 

Jamais  je  ne  t'oublierai. 


Thy  heart  was  made  for  laujjhter, 
My  heart  's  in  tears  to-day  ; 
Tears  for  a  fu  kle  mistress, 
Flow  n  from  its  love  away. 

Tears  for  a  fickh:  mistress, 
Flown  from  its  love  away. 
All  for  these  faded  roses 
Which  I  refused  in  play. 

All  for  these  faded  roses 
Whii  h  I  refused  in  play- 
Would     that     each     rf)se     were 

j^rowing 
Still  on  the  rose-tree  gay. 

Would     that     each     rose     were 

growing 
Still  on  the  rose-tree  gay, 
And  that  the  fated  rose-tree 
Deep  in  the  f)ccan  lay. 
I  've  loved  thee  long  and  dearly, 
I  '11  love  thee,  sweet,  for  aye. 


//  la  Claire  Foutainc  has  been  claimed  for  r'ranche- 
Comtc,  l^rittany,  and  Normandy,  but  the  best 
authorities  have  come  to  the  conchision,  from  a 
comparison  of  the  different  versions,  that  it  is  Nor- 
man. In  Malbroink  s\n  va-t-cn-^ucrrc,  we  have  a 
son^  which  was  sun^  in  the  time  of  the  (irand 
Monarqiie.  Of  its  popularity  with  the  hVench  Ca- 
nadians, we  have  an  example  in  (ieneral  Strange's 
reply  to  the  65th,  a  TVench  Canadian  regiment, 
during  the  second  Northwest  rebellion.  One  morn- 
ing, after  weeks  of  tedious  and  toilsome  marching, 
just  as  the  men  were  about  to  fall  in,  the  General 


44^  THE  ^'JVA-y  OF  CAAAVA. 

overhead  the  remark — "  Ah  !  when  will  we  get 
home?"  "Ah,  mes  gargons,"  laughed  the 
General — 

**  Malbrouck  s'en  va-t-en  guerre 
Mais  quand  reviendra-t-i1  ?  " 

"  Malbrouck  has  gone  a-fighting, 
But  when  will  ho  return  ?" 

and  with  their  characteristic  light-heartedness  the 
men  caught  up  the  famous  old  air  and  the  march 
was  resumed  without  a  murmur. 

These  chaiisoiis  populaircs  oi  French  Canada  afford 
some  evidence  of  the  tenacity  with  which  the  people 
cling  to  the  customs,  traditions,  and  associations  of 
the  land  of  their  origin.  Indeed,  a  love  for  Old 
France  lies  still  deep  in  the  hearts  of  the  people, 
and  both  young  and  old  study  her  best  literature, 
and  find  their  greatest  pride  in  her  recognition  of 
their  poets  and  writers.  But  while  there  exists 
among  the  more  influential  and  cultured  class  a 
sentimental  attachment  to  Old  France,  there  is  a 
still  deeper  feeling,  strengthened  by  the  political 
freedom  and  material  progress  of  the  past  forty 
years,  that  the  connection  with  the  British  Empire 
gives  the  best  guaranty  for  the  preservation  of 
their  liberties  and  rights.  This  feeling  has  found 
frequent  expression  in  the  forcible  utterances  of 
Mr.  Laurier,  the  present  Premier  of  the  Dominion. 
No  doubt  the  influence  of  the  Roman  Catholic 
priesthood  has  had  much  to  do  with  perpetuating 
.the  connexion  with  England.     They  feel  that  it  is 


447 


44 '"^  Jff^'    STOk'V  OF   CAXADA. 

not  by  «'i  connexion  with  Franco  or  the  United 
States  that  their  rcUgious  and  civil  institutions  can 
be  best  conserved. 

All  classes  now  agree  as  to  the  necessity  of  pre- 
serving the  federal  system  in  its  entirety,  since  it 
ensures  better  than  any  other  system  of  government 
the  rights  and  interests  of  the  French  Canadian 
population  in  all  those  matters  most  deeply  affecting 
a  people  speaking  a  language,  professing  a  religion, 
and  retaining  certain  institutions  different  from 
those  of  the  majority  of  the  people  of  the  Do- 
minion. 

No  French  Canadian  writer  or  politician  of  weight 
in  the  country  now  urges  so  impvossible  or  suicidal 
a  scheme  as  the  foundation  of  an  independent 
French  nationality  on  the  banks  of  the  St.  Law- 
rence. The  history  of  the  fifty  years  that  have 
elapsed  since  the  dark  days  of  Canada,  when  Papi- 
neau  wished  to  establish  a  "  Nation  Canadienne," 
goes  to  show  that  the  governing  classes  of  the  Eng- 
lish and  French  nationalities  have  ceased  to  feel 
towards  each  other  that  intense  spirit  of  jealousy 
which  was  likely  at  one  time  to  develop  itself  into  a 
dangerous  hatred.  The  spirit  (^f  conciliation  and 
justice,  which  has  happily  influenced  the  action  of 
leading  English  and  French  Canadian  statesmen  in 
the  administration  of  public  affairs,  has  been  so  far 
successful  in  repressing  the  spirit  of  passion  and 
demagogism  which  has  exhibited  itself  at  certain 
political  crises,  and  in  bringing  the  two  nationalities 
into  harmony  with  each  other.  As  long  as  the  same 
wise  counsels  continue  to  prevail  in   Canada  that 


FRE.XCU  CANADA. 


449 


have  heretofore  governed  her,  and  carried  her  suc- 
cessfully through  critical  periods,  the  integrity  of 
the  confederation  is  assured,  and  the  two  races  will 
ever  work  harmoniously  together,  united  by  the  ties 
of  a  common  interest, — always  the  strongest  bond 
of  union — and  a  common  allegiance  to  the  Empire 
to  whose  fostering  care  they  already  owe  so  much. 


INDEX. 


Abenakis.  114  ;  allies  of  French, 
212 

Abercromby,  General,  defeateil 
by  Montcalm,  245 

Acadia,  meaning  of,  5  ;  its  mod- 
ern divisions,  5  ;  occupieil 
by  De  Monts,  50-54  ;  history 
of,  as  French  possession,  92- 
109,  203,  206-208  ;  ceded  to 
England,  208  ;  French  inhab- 
itants of,  218  ;  their  unhappy 
fate,  231-236 

Acadians,  expulsion  of,  231-236 

Aix-la-Chapelle,  Treaty  of.  219 

A  la  Claire  Fontaine,  French 
Canadian  ballad.  444 

Akide  and  Lys,  French  frigates 
captured  by  English.  229 

Alexander,  Sir  W.  (Lord  Stirling), 
receives  rights  in  Acadia,  and 
names  Nova  Scotia,  8g 

Alfonce,  Captain  Jehan,  French 
pilot,  47 

Algonquin  Indians,  114  ;  tribal 
divisions  of,  114,  115  ;  cus- 
toms of,  1 23-1 28  ;  illustration 
of.  III 

American  Revolution,  War  of, 
attitude  of  French  Canadians 
during,  282  ;  Canada  invaded, 
283,  284 :  Montreal  taken, 
283  ;  Quebec  besieged,  285- 
287  ;  death  of  Montgomery, 
285  ;    American   troops   retire 


from  Canada,  286.  287  ;  de- 
feat of  Cornwallis,  288  ;  peace, 
ib. 

Amherst,  General,  242,  245 
Andastes,  82,  83 
I   Annapolis  (Port    Royal),    valley 
of,  51,  52;  old  capital  of  Nova 
Scotia,  206.     See  Port  Roval 
I    Anse-au-Foiilon  (Wolfe's  Cove), 
Wolfe  ascends  Quebec  heights 
from,  254-256  ;  Montgomer)''s 
j       march  from,  285 
I   Antillia,  21 
Archibald,  Adams,  first  governor 

of  Manitol)a,  392 
Argall,     Samuel,     destroys 
Sauveur   and    Port    Royal 
j        Acadia,  64,  65 
Arms   of   the    Dominion, 
cover  of  this  volume 
1    Arms  of  the  Provinces,  407 
'    Arnold,    General    Benedict, 
expedition     against      Quebec, 
284-286  ;  raises  siege,  286 
I   Art  in  Canada,  419 
I    Arthur,    Sir    George,     Canadian 
governor^  355 
Ashburton  Treaty.  375 
j   Assembly,    legislative,   first    at 
;        Halifax,  302  :  at  Quebec,  306  ; 
I        in    other   provinces,  302,  303. 
'        See     Legislatures,     House    of 
Commons 
Assiniboia.      See  Red  River 
Astrolabe,  lost  by  Champlain,  79 
Atlantis,  island  of,  I2 


St. 
in 

See 


his 


451 


43:^ 


INDEX, 


B 


Haic  Verte,  Fort  at,  229,  230 
HaUiwiti,    Kolicit,  Canadian    re- 
former, 342,  350,  364  ;  j)(>rtrait 
of.  365 
Hallails  of  French  Canada,  442- 

445 
Barre,    La,   Canadian   governor, 

Batoche,  fij^ht  at  (in  1885),  397 
Heaujeu,    Ca|)tain     de,    defeats 

Uraddock,  230 
Beauscj«)ur,  Fort,  22(j  ;  captured 

by  English,  230 
Bedard,    French  Canadian  jour- 
nalist, 313.  314 
Bering  Seacjuestion,  324 
Biard,  Father,  Jesuit  missionary, 

61,  64 
Biencourt,     son    of    Baron      de 

Poutrincoiirt,  60  ;  his  Acadian 

career,  60-O5,  94  ;  death  of,  94 
Bienville,    father   of    Louisiana, 

225 
Big  Bear,  Indian  chief,  395,  398 
Bigot,    Canadian   intendant,  his 

crimes,   249  ;    punishment   of, 

267 
Bishop's  Palace,  305,  307 
Boston,  City  of,  founded,  100 
Bougainville,  at  siege  of  Quebec, 

253,  254,  256  ;  his  later  career, 

'-J53 

Boundaries  of  Canada,  under 
Quebec  Act,  266,  277 ;  treaty 
of  peace  of  1783,  289  ;  in  1842 
(Ashburton  treaty),  375  ;  in 
1856  (Oregon),  375  ;  after 
confederation,  in  1867,  380 ; 
in  1896^  4.  5 

Bourgeoys,  Margaret,  founder  of 
Congregation  de  Notre-Dame 
in  Canada,  136 

Bourgoyne,  General,  defeated 
at  Saratoga,  288 

Bourlamaque,      General,      24S, 

254 
Bowell.     Mackenzie,     Canadian 
premier,  394 


Braddock,  General,  defeated  at 
Monongahela,  230 

Brant,  Joseph  (*' Thayendane- 
gca "),  Mohawk  chief,  298- 
300  ;  autograph    and    portrait 

of,  2{J9 

Brantford,  named  after  Indian 
chief.  3»x).      See  Brant 

Brebeuf,  Jean  de,  Jesuit  mission- 
ary, 86 :  his  heroism  and 
death.  142  ;  relic  of,  143 

Bressani.  Jesuit  missionary,  138 

Brion,  .Seigneur  de,  French  Ad- 
miral, 32 

British  Columbia,  scenery  of,  16, 
17;  history  of,  404.  405  :  en- 
ters Canadian  confederation. 
406  ;   Indians  of,  402 

British  North  America  Act  of 
1867,  unites  Canadian  pi  evin- 
ces, 374,  422 

Brock,  Major-General,  during 
war  of    1812;    defeats    Hull, 

322  ;  dies  at  battle  of  (^)ueens- 
ton  Heights,   ib.  ;  portrait  of, 

323  ;  monument  to,  336 

Brockville,  city  of,  324 

Brown,  George.  Canadian  jour- 
nalist and  statesman,  372  ;  po- 
litical career,  372,  408-410; 
his  part  in  confederation,  372, 
412,  413  ;  autoi^raph  and  por- 
trait of,  409  ;  monument  to, 
414 

Bruce,  John,  at  Red  River  (1869), 
388 

Brule,  Etienne,  Indian  interpre- 
ter, 81,  84,  85 

Bullion,  Madam  de,  founder  of 
Montreal  Hotel  Dieu,  134 


Cabot,    John,    discovers    North 

American  Continent,  21-23 
Caleche  in  French  Canada,  437 
Callieres,    Canadian     governor, 
204 ;  makes  peace  with  Iro- 
quois, id. 


rxDKX. 


453 


Campbell.  Sir  Colin,  governor 
of  Nova  Stalia.  362 

Canipl>cll,  \V.  Wilfred,  Cana- 
dian poet,  181 

Canada,  divisions  of,  1-18  ; 
name  of,  7;  discovery  of,  34, 
35  ;  river  of,  35  :  (^ucl)ec,  an- 
cient capital  of,  70 ;  govern- 
ment of,  under  France.  156- 
167  ;  ceded  to  Kngland,  263  ; 
military  regime  of,  268;  polit- 
ical state  from  1 763-1867, 
338-379 ;    confederation      of, 

370-374,30'.  392,404  ;  French 
population  of,  414 ;  popu- 
lation of,  415  ;  resources  of, 
416 ;  intellectual  progress  of, 
417-420;  government  of,  420- 
425  ;  relations  with  Kngland, 
422-425;  map  of  ( 1643),  44; 
(1745),  221;  (£896),  opposite 
p.  I.  Sit'  French  Canadians 
Canadian   Pacific   Railway,  392, 

396 

Canals  of  Canada,  358 

Cape  Breton,  Island  of  ;^ discov- 
ered, 23-26  ;  named  lie  Roy- 
ale,  210  ;  ceded  to  England, 
215  ;  restored  to  France,  219  ; 
ceded  again  to  England,  264  ; 
government  of,  under  France, 
210,  211  ;  part  of  Nova  Scotia, 
303.      See  I-ouisl)Ourg 

Card  money  of  French  Canada, 
162 

Carignan-Salieres  regiment,  152, 
166 

Carleton,  General  (Sir  Guy),  at 
siege  of  Quebec,  250 ;  Cana- 
dian governor.  277  ;  saves 
Canada,  280,  283-287 ;  be- 
comes Lord  Dorchester  and 
again  governor,  301 

Carman,  Bliss,  Canadian  poet, 
419 

Caroline,    burning    of    steamer, 

354 
Caron,  Sir  Adolphe,  396 
Cartier,    Sir   George,   Canadian 

statesman,  372  ;  his  character 


and  services  to  Canada,  410- 
413  ;    autograph   and  portrait 
of,  411;    monument    to,    414 
Cartier,    Jaccpies,    his    voyages. 
30-46  ;  autograph  and  portrait 
of,  31  ;  discovers  Canada,  14  ; 
first  map   of    his    discoveries, 
44  ;  <leath  of,  46 
Cartwright,   Sir  Richard.  Cana- 
dian statesman,  2(p 
Cascade  Mountains,  17 
Cataratpii  (Kingston),  184 
Cayugas.    divi>ion    of     Iroquois 
Confederacy,     118.      See    Iro- 
qu«)is 
Celoron,  in  the  Ohio  Valley.  223 
Chalcur,  Bay   of,  tliscovercd.  32 
Champlain,      Helen,      wife     of 

Samuel  Champlain,  77 
Champlain,  lake,  name  of,  73 
Champlain,  Samuel,  48  ;  fir^t 
visit  to  Canada,  49  ;  autograph 
and  portrait  of,  69 ;  founds 
Quebec,  7<i ;  battles  with  the 
Iro(juois,  72-75,  81-85  ;  tirst 
visit  to  the  Ottawa  region,  78- 
80 ;  his  lost  astrolabe,  79  ; 
discovers  Lake  Huron  fnier 
douce),  82  :  surrenders  Quebec 
to  Kirk,  88  ;  returns  to  Cana- 
da, 89 ;  death  of,  (90  ;  his 
services  to  Canada,  91 
Chansons    of     French    Canada. 

See  Ballads 
Charlottetown,  city  of,  founded, 

311 
Chartres,    Fort,  on  the   Illinois, 

224 

Chateau  St.  Louis,  history  of, 
destroyed  by  fire,  see  frontis- 
piece 

Chateauguay,  battle  of,  328  ; 
monument  of,  337 

Chevetix  Rclevcs,  ir6 

Chrystler's  Farm,  Battle  of.  See 
War  of  1812 

Clergy    Reserves,  346 ;    settled, 

3^'7 
Colbert,    FVench      Minister    of 

State,  152-156 


4S4 


/XDEX. 


C't>lb<>rnc,  Sir  Jolin.  romman- 
der-in-Chiff  <lurinj;  Canadian 
rebellion  of  1838-39,  352-357 

Commons.  Sie  I  louse  of  Com- 
nkons 

Cotn/>ai:[nit'  des  Cents  Associh^ 
8()  ;  charter  revoked,  152 

Ccnfcderalion  of  Caiiadi,    370- 

374;  3S0,  39'.  3<)2.  4<M.   4'>^> 
Con>titution    of      |)<»minioM    nf 

Can.ida.  421-425 
Constitution     of     Provinces     of 

Canada,  421,  422 
Con i^rt'i^a lion    de     Notre    IXtme, 

foundefl,  136 
Constitutional  Acl  of  I7«>i.  303- 

305;    operation    <»f,    ^^oy-jis, 

338-35^ 
Convents   in    C'anada,    founded, 

1 30,  ft  S,t/. 
Cortereal,   Gaspar   and    Mi^utl, 

Portuguese  voyagers,  24 
Cosa,  Juan  de  la,   Spanish   |)ilot, 

hi-i  map  of  1500,  23,  25 
Costabellc,  M,  de,  first  governor 

of  Cape  IJreton,  210 
Cotes,  166 

Coudres,  Isle  de,  named,  35 
Courcelles,    M.     de,      Canadian 

governor,  153 
Conrenrs-de-hois,  170-176 
Craig,      Sir     James,      Canadian 

governor,  312-314 
Crevecoeur,  Fort,  on  the  Illinois, 

186 
Crowfoot,  Indian  chief,  397 
Cut-Knife    Creek,    fight    at  (in 

1S85),  397 

D 

Daniel,  Father,  Jesuit  mission- 
ary and  martyr,  142 

D'Anville,  Duke,  217,  21S 

D'Aunay,  Chevalier,  98  ;  his 
feud  with  Charles  de  la  Tour. 
9Q-105  ;  death  of,  105  ;  mar- 
riage of  his  widow,  106 

Dauphin  map  (1543)  44 

D'Avaugour,  Baron,  Canadian 
governor,  160 


Dawson,  Dr.  G.  M.,  Canadian 
scientist,  401,418 

Dawson,  Sir  j.  W.,  f^  anadian 
scientist,  41 H 

Dt'ioMZ'if  le.  La  Xouve/le,  by 
Father  Hennepin,  187 

Demons,  Isle  of,  4O 

Denonville,  Martpiis  ile,  Cana- 
dian governor.  195 

Denys,  iSiicholas,  in  Acadia,  97, 

IO() 

Deserts,  Isle  of,  54,  64 

Detroit,  history  of,  207,  223, 
270-272,  274 

Diamond,  Cape.  44 

Dieskau,  Baron,  defeated  by 
Johnson,  231 

Dollard,  Sieur  des  Ormeaux,  his 
heroism,  151 

Dominion  of  Canada.  See  (  anada 

Donnacona,  Indian  King  of 
Stadacona,  36,  42,  43 

Dorchester.    .SVv  Curlcton 

Druillcles,  (jabriel,  Jesuit  mis- 
sionary, 139,  140 

Drummond,  General,  wins  battle 
of   Lund)'s  Lane,  331 

Dufferin,  Lord,  Canadian  gov- 
ernor, 380,  394 

Duhaut,  La  Salle's  murderer, 
190 

Duluth,  Daniel  Greysolon,    17b, 

1S7 

Dumont,  Gabriel,  half-breed 
leader  in  second  Red  River 
Rebellion,  395,  397 

Duquesne,  Canadian  governor, 
223 

Duquesne,  Fort,  224,  246 

Durham,  Lord,  Canadian  gov- 
ernor, 355  ;  his  report  on  Cana- 
dian affairs,  342,  356,  361 


Earthquake  of  1663  in  Canada, 

151 
Eboulements,  Les,  151 

Edgar,  James  David,  Canadian 

author,  419 


IXPEX. 


455 


Education   in  Canada,  358   359. 

368,  417,422 
Edward  (I.yman)  Fort,  222 
Elgin,  Lord,  Canadian  governor, 

3'>3 
England  and  Canada,    relations 

between,  423-425 

Eries  ("Racoons"),  117. 

Etcheniins  (Canoemen),  114 


F 


Falkland,   Lord,    Nova   Scotian 

governor,  362 
"Family  Compact,"  344  ;  broken 

up,  355 
Fenian  Raids,  378 
Fish   Creek,    fight  at  (in   1885), 

396  ;  monument  to  dead,  400 
Fisheries   of  Canada,  324,    335, 

375 

Fitzgibbon.     See  War  of  181 2 

Five  Nations.     .SVr  Iroquois 

Forbes,  Cienerai,  242  ;  in  Ohio 
Valley,  246 

Foster,  George  E.,  Canadian 
statesman,  298 

Eraser  River,  16,  17,  3S3 

Frechette,  Louis,  French  Cana- 
dian poet,  181  ;  his  portrait, 
441 

Frederic  (Crown  Point),  Fort, 
222 

Free  libraries,  420 

French  Canada.  See  I'rench 
Canadians 

French  Canadians,  language  of, 
428-430  ;  villages  of,  431-434; 
attachment  of,  to  Roman  Cath- 
olic religion,  430-432,  439; 
habits  of,  435-438  ;  literature 
of,  442  ;  feelings  of,  towards 
England,  and  confederation, 
446-448 

Frog   Lake  Massacre  (in    1885), 

395 
Frontenac,      Count,      Canadian 
governor,  194-204  ;    character 
of,  193 ;  repulses  Phips  at  Que- 
bec, 199-201  ;  humbles  Onon- 


dagas,    203  ;  death,    of,    204  ; 
autograph  an»l  statue  of,  if)i 
Fronttnac,  Fort.    184,    K^S,  !()6, 
246  ;  destroyed,  247 

G 

Galissonnierc,  Canadian  gover- 
nor, 222,  223 

Gait,  Sir  Alexander.  Canadian 
statesman,  372 

Ciannentaha,  Onondaga  French 
Mission,  14H,  149 

Ciarneau.  F.  X.,  French  Cana- 
dian historian,  442 

Garry,  Fort.  385,  388,  301  ; 
view  of,  389 

Gaspc,  Cape,  8.  33 

George,  Lake,  137  ;  battle  of, 
231 

(jermain.  Lord  George  (Sack- 
ville),  287 

Gilbert,  Sir  Humphrey,  43 

Gomez,  FZstevaii,  -7 

Gosford,  Lord,  C!anadian  gover- 
nor, 342,  352 

Gourlay,  Robert,  Canadian  re- 
former, 344  ;  his  ill-treatment, 

345 
(jovernment     of     Dominion    of 

Canada,  420-425 
Governor-General     of     Canada, 

422,  423 
Grasett,  Colonel,  in  Kiel's  sec- 
ond rebellion  (1885),  397 
Griffin,  Le  Salle's  vessel,  186 
Grosseilliers,  Sieur  de,  170 
Guercheville,  Mme.  de,  61 
(iuyart,  Marie  (Mere  de  I'lncar- 
natioii),  Superior  of  Ursulines, 
132  ;  portrait  of,  131 

H 

Habitants    of    French    Canada, 

163-167,  434-439 

Ilaldimand,  General,  Canadian 
governor,  287,  290,  301 

Hale,  Horatio,  on  Indian  le- 
gends, 113,  119 

Haliburton,     Judge     ("Sam 


456 


IXDEX. 


Slick  "),  360,  419  ;  portrait  of, 

359 
Halifax,  City  of,  founded,  222 
Hampton,   General,  defeated  at 

Chateauguay,  328 
Harvey,    Colonel  (Sir  John),  at 

Stoney   Creek,   325  ;  in    Nova 

Scotia,  363 
Head,   Sir   Francis    Bond,  350- 

353,  355 
Hebert,  French  Canadian  sculp- 
tor, 193,  441 
Helluland  of  the  Norsemen,  ig 
Hincks,   Sir   Francis,    Canadian 

statesman,  367 
Hennepin,  Father,  his  vovages, 

187 
Heve,  La,  in  Acadia,  98 
Hey,  Chief  Justice,  278 
Historians  of  Canada,  418.     See 
also    Hibliographical    note    at 
beginning  of  volume 
Hochelaga    (Montreal),     Indian 
village  of,  37-41  ;  inhabitants 
of,  112 
Holbourne,  Admiral,  240 
Hospitals  in  Canada.  130 
Hotel  Dieu  of  Montreal,  134 
Hotel  Dieu  of  Quebec,  130 
House  of  Commons  of  Canada, 

422 
Howe,  Joseph,  Canadian  states- 
man and  father  of  responsible 
government,  362,  364  ;  portrait 
of,  363  ;  action  of,  with  respect 
to  union,  413,  414 
Howe,  Lord,  death  of,  245 
Hudson's   Bay,  English  trading 
posts  at,  attacked  by  French, 
195,   203,  205  ;  Company   of, 
381-388 
Huron  Indians,  115,  habits  of, 
116;  habitations  of,   82,  116  ; 
conquered    by  Iroquois,    141- 
143  ;   dispersion  of,  143-145 


Iberville.  Chevalier  d',  198,  203, 
207,  2o3  ;  portrait  of,  209 


He  Royale,  .9<r  Cape  Breton 
Indians  of  Canada,  tribal  divi- 
sions of,  114,  115;  customs 
of,  115-117,  123-128  p]nglish 
policy  towards,  275  ;  present 
population  and  development 
of,  402.  403 
Iroquois,  or  Five  Nations,  iir, 
114  ;  tribal  divisions  and  habi- 
tations of,  118,  119;  habits 
and  institutions  of,  iiS-123; 
plan  of  long-houses  of,  119; 
Canadian  raids  of,  137,  138, 
146,  150;  attacks  of,  on  llu- 
rons,  141-143 ;  attacks  on 
Western  Indians,  195  ;  French 
expeditions  against,  74,  153, 
154,  196,  203  ;  joined  by  Tus- 
caroras  and  become  Six  Na- 
tions, 121 


J 


Jesuits  in  Acadia,  61  ;  in  Can- 
ada, 85,  86,  89  ;  Relations^ 
113,  114,  127;  first  Canadian 
martyr,    139  ;    their    heroism 

i39-'43 
Johnson,  E.    Pauline,   Canadian 

poetess,  419 
Jogues,  Isaac,  first  Jesuit  martyr, 

139 
Johnson,   Sir  \V.,   227  ;    defeats 

French  at  Lake  George,  231 

Johnston,  J.W.,  Canadian  states- 
man, 362 

JoUiet,  Louis,  discovers  Missis- 
sippi, 179,  180 

Jonquiere.  Marquis  de  la,  Cana- 
dian governor,  21S 

Judicial  Committee  of  the 
Queen's  Privy  Council,  423 

Judiciary  of  Canada,  422,  423 


K 


King's  College  in  Nova  Scotia, 

360 
Kingsford,    William.    Canadian 

author,  418.     See  also  Biblio- 


/.\v>/:.\: 


457 


graphical  Note  at  the  begin- 
of  this  vokime 

Kirby,  William,  Canadian  au- 
thor, 419 

Kirk,  Admiral,  captures  Que- 
bec, S8 


L 


La  Chine,  origin  of  name,  1S4; 

massacre  at,  196 
Lacolle    Mill,    American    defeat 

at,  331 
Lafontaine,  Sir  L.  II.,  Canadian 

statesman,    364  ;    portrait   of, 

369 

La  Hontan,  195 

Lalemant,  Charles,  Jesuit  supe- 
rior, 86 

Lalemant,  Gabriel,  Jesuit  mis- 
sionary, his  heroic  death,  142 

La  Mothe-Cadillac,  founder  of 
Detroit,  207 

Lampman,  Archibald,  Canadian 
poet,  419 

La  Tour,  Charles  de,  in  Acadia, 
93-109  ^ 

La  Tour,  Claude  de,  in  Acadia, 

93-97 

La  Tour,  Madame  de,  her  hero- 
ism, 102-104 

Laurentides,  6  ;  their  antiquity, 
id.   See  View  of  Cape  Trinity,  9 

Laurier,  Wilfrid,  Canadian 
statesman  and  premier,  431, 
446  ;  autograph  and  portrait 
of,  447 

Laval,  Mgr.,  first  Canadian 
bishop,  157  ;  character  of, 
158-160  ;  portrait  of,  159 

Lawrence,  Fort,  22S 

Lawrence,  Governor,  his  part 
in  expulsion  of  Acadians,  235 

Law,  systems  of,  in  Canada, 
422,  423 

Le  Borgne,  in  Acadia,  106 

Le  Caron,  Father,  first  western 
missionary,  82 

Legislative  Council,  made  elec- 
tive in  Canada,  367 


Legislatures,  Provincial,  consti- 
tution of ;  (in  1774),  27S  ; 
(1792),  302-304;  (1840),  357  ; 
(1S67).  420 

Leif  Ericson,  Norse  voyager  in 
America,  10,  20 

Le  Moyne,  Simon,  Jesuit  nus- 
sionary,i47 

Le  Loutre,  French  priest  in 
Acadia,  229,  230 

L'Escarbot,  in  Acadia,  55,  56 

Levis,  Chevalier  de,  248  ;  Can- 
adian town  named  after,  2  ; 
at  battle  of  St.  Foy,  262 

Liotot,  murderer  of  La  Salle, 
190 

Liquors,  sale  of,  t6o 

Livius,  Chief  Justice,  304 

Local  government  in  French 
Canada,  164  ;  in  Flnglish 
Canada.  See  Municipal  In- 
stitutions 

Long  Sault,  heroic  incident  at, 
150 

L'Ordre  de  bon  tefups,  at  I'ort 
Royal,  57 

Lorette,  Hurons  of,  144 

Lome,  Marquis  of,  founder  of 
Royal  .Society  of  Canada.  418  ; 
his  interest  in  Canadian  art, 
420 

Loudoun,  Earl,  257 

Louis  XIV.,  his  interest  in  Can- 
ada, 152,  156 

Louisbourg,  211  ;  taken  by  New 
England  expedition,  215-217  ; 
by  Amherst  and  Boscawen, 
242,  243  ;  destroyed,  243 ; 
present  aspect  of,  ih.  :  view 
of,  in  1731,  210 

Louisiana,  208,  224-426 

Lount,  Samuel,  Canadian  re- 
former, 353,  355 

Loyalists,  United  Empire,  297  ; 
their  trials,  292-294  ;  famous 
names  among,  295  ;  their 
influence  on  Canada,  292, 
296 

Lundy's  Lane,  battle  of,  331  ; 
monument  at,  333,  337 


458 


IXDJ.X. 


M 


Macdonald,  Sir  John  Alexander, 
Canadian  statesman  and  pre- 
mier, political   career  of,   372, 

394.  J*)'^.  4 !<>--»  14  ;  one  of 
founders  of  Confederation, 
372  ;  autograph  and  portrait 
of,  405  ;  his  ii-nure,  as  premier, 
410;  character  of,  411,  412; 
monuments  to,  414 

Macdonnell,  P.isliop,  310 

Mackenzie,  Alexander,  Canadian 
premier,  410 

Mackenzie  River,  383 

Ma«  kenzie,  \V.  l.yon,  Can- 
adian reformer,  348  ;  career 
of,  348-351,  353-355,  3^'8; 
ant«)^ra|)h  and  portrait  of,  34(; 

Mackinac  or  Michillimackinac, 
174,  175,  187,  203,  207,  223, 
272  (Pontiacs  War);  322,  332 
(War  of  1812) 

McDoncll,  Colonel,  attorney- 
general,  killed  at  (Jueenslon, 
322 

McDonnell,  Colonel.  ca|)tures 
Ogdenshurgh,  324;  at  Chatvau- 
jjuay,  328 

McDougall,  William,  (  anadian 
statesman,  373  ;  in  the  North- 
west, 387-3(}0 

McLeod  affair  with  the  Unile<l 
States,  374,  375 

McNab,  Colonel  (Sir  Allan),  353, 

354 
Magdalen  Islands,  32 
Maisonneuve,  Sieur  de,   founder 
of     Ville  -  Marie    { M ontreal ), 
I33-I3^>;  portrait  of,  135 
Mance,  Jeanne,  134-136 
Manitoba,  province  of,  391,  3<>2. 

StY  Winnipeg 
Manufactures  in  Canada,  416 
Markland,  Norse  discovery,  20 
Manpiette,     Feather,     178  ;     dis- 
covers   Mississippi,   179,    180; 
his  death,  1S2,  183 
Maseres,  Attorney-deneral,  278 
Mason  and  Slidell  difficulty,  377 


Mass*,',  Father,  Jesuit  missionary, 
in  Acadia,  f)i  ;  in  Canada,  80 

Matagorda  I'ay,  I, a  Salle  at,  up 

Matthews,  I'eter,  Canadian  re- 
former, 355 

Mend)ertou,  Micmac  chief,  58, 
59,  fx).  62 

Membre,  I'ather,  FreiK  h  mis- 
sionary,  1H7,  18S 

Metcalfe,  Lord,  Canadian  gov- 
ernor, 362 

Metis  or  half-breeds  of  Canada, 
II,  386;  rebellions  of  (iHfx)), 
386-3(^1  ;  (1885),  393-400.  .Sir 
Kiel 

Micmacs  (Souri<piois),    114,   115 

Middlcton,  (leneral,  connnands 
Canadian  forces  in  second  Red 
River  Rebellion  (  1885),  yp 

Mississippi,  discovery  of,  17(), 
180,  181,  188  ;  France  in  val- 
ley of,  224,  225,  426 

Mohawks,  division  of  Iro(juois 
Confederation.  118;  settle  in 
C'anada,  30U,  402.  See  Iro- 
quois 

Monckton,  Ceneral,  230;  at 
siege  of  (^)uebec,  250,  257 

Money  in  French  Canada,  161, 
162 

Monongahela.  battle  of.  See 
Rraddoc  k 

Montagnais  Indians,  115 

Montcalm,  Mar(juis  de,  238  ;  vic- 
tories of,  237,  238  ;  defeat  of, 
by  Woife,  256  ;  death  of,  257  ; 
character  of,  260  ;  monument 
to,  259,  261 

Montgomery,  Cleneral,  in  Cana- 
da, 284  ;  (loath  of,  285 

Montgomery's  Tavern,  near  To- 
ronto, Canadian  rebels  de- 
feated at  (1836),  353 

Montmagny,  Charles  Ilault  de, 
Canadian  governor,  129,  133; 
called  "Onontio."  153 

Montreal,    city    of,    founded    is 
Ville-Marie,  134-136;  view  of, 
in  1760,  265  ;  population  of, 
416 


IXD/'IX. 


459 


Mfnits.  Sieur  de,  in  Acadia,  50- 

=  •>.  ''H.  75 
Morj^an,  Lewis   II..  on   the    Iro- 

<|U(tis,     I  H) 

Morrison,  Colonel,  clefeats 
Americans  at  (!lirystler's  Farm, 
32  H 

Mounted  Police  of  the  North- 
west, 4<ii 

Munit  i|»al  Institutions  in('ana<la. 

3<'7.  a''"*.  420 

Murray,  (ieni'ral,  at  sie^e  of 
<^)uel)ec,  250  ;  defeated  hy 
Levis,  262;  Canadian  }^ov- 
eriK)r,  ^£75-277  ;    iliaracter  of, 

27^^ 

N 

Necessity,  Fort,  224 

Ncilson,  John,  ("anadiaii  journal- 
ist, 33S,  33<) 

Nelson,  Wolfred,  <  anadian  re- 
former, 330,  352.  356,  357, 
368 

Neutral  Nation  (Attiwanda- 
ronks),  1 17 

Newark  (Niaj^ara).  30^;  burned 
by  American  troops,  330 

New  Hrunswick,  province  of, 
5,  () ;  separated  from  Nova 
Scotia.  302  ;  enters  (^jnfedera- 
tion,  373.  374.  4' 3 

Niagara,  fails  of.  186 

Niagara,  Fort,  231,  247,  253. 
426 

Nicolet,  Jean.  16S,  169 

Ni|)issing,  Lake.  81,  82  ;  Indians 
of,  ii>.  ,115 

Norse  voyages  to  America,  19, 
20 

Northwest  Company,  382-385 

Northwest  of  Canada,  10,  ii  ; 
histf)ry  of,  381-401  ;  re- 
sources and  progress  of,  ii, 
392  ;  mounted  police  of,  401  ; 
Indians  of,  relx-Uions  in,  387- 
402  ;  monuments  to  victims  of, 
400  ;  government  of,  422 

Norumbega,  28,  54  ;  memorials 
of,  ib. 


Nova  Scotia.  <;,  ^'  ;  named.  <>6  ; 
first  assembly  ol,  302  ;  enters 
Confederation,  373,  374,  413 


0 


Ocean    steamshi()s,     41^.        Sef 

Noyal  William 
Ohio,  valley  ol   the,  contest    for. 

223,    22(),    2^0,    242;     Indian 

raids  in  (I'ontiac's  wai),  273 
Oneidas,    division     of     Iro<piois 

Confederation.  118,      .SV/'  Iro- 

(piois 
Onondagas,  division  of    Iroquois 

Confederation,  118.       Siu'  Iro- 

(|uois 
Onontio.      .S«r  Montmagny 
Ontario,  province  of,    10  ;  name 

of,   ib.,    374  ;    first    known   as 

Upi)er    or     Western    Canada, 

303;      enters     Confederation, 

374 
Oregon  boun<lary  <piestion,  371^ 
Orleans,  Island  of.  36 
( )swei40  (Cht>ueguen).  Fort,  222, 

227 
Ottawa  River,  78 
( )tter.  Colonel.  397 
Ouigoudi   (St,    lohn's    River,  N. 

H).53 


I'apincau,  Louis  j..  Canadian 
reformer,  339  ;  career  <jf,  339, 
351,  352,  357.  36.S  ;  portrait 
of,  341 

Paris,   Treaty  of,  264.  26«; 

I'arker,  (iilbert,  Canadian  au- 
thor, 419 

Rarliameni  ;  House  at  Quebec,  in 
17')2,  3fJ5  ;  «it  Newark,  306, 
307 ;  burned  at  Montreal  in 
1849,  370  ;  view  of,  at  Ottawa, 
421  ;  constitution  of  Cana- 
dian, 422 

I'eltrie,  Madame  de  la,  131,  132 

Pemaquid,  Fort,  213 

Pepperrell,  (ieneral,  215,  216 


460 


INDEX. 


I'errot,  Nicholas,  176,  177 
Phips,  Admiral,  attacks  Quebec, 

199-201 
Pitt  (Chatham),  240,  241 
Poets  of  English  Canada,  419  ; 

of  French  Canada,  441 
Pontgrave.  43,  49 
I'ontiac,  Ottawa  chief,  270,  271; 

his  war  against   Knglish,  271- 

274  ;  death  of,  274 
Population  of  Canada  ;  (in  1757), 

225  ;  (1702),  303;  (1S12),  320; 

(1838),  358;  (1861).  366;  (1896), 

415  ;    French  population,  358, 

415 

Port  Royal,  founded,  52,  54  ; 
destroyed  by  Argall.  64  ;  re- 
stored.99;  taken  by  Nicholson, 
206  ;  called  Annapolis  Royal, 
ib.  :  Us  present  aspect,  52 

Pouchot,  247 

Poundmaker,  Indian   chief,  395, 

398, 
Poutrincourt,   Baron  de.  founds 

Port  Koyal,  54  ;   career  of,  in 
America,  53-61  ;  death  of,  66 
Prescott  Gate,  305,  307 
Presqu'isle(Erie),  223,  247 
Prevost,  General,  Canadian  gov- 
ernor, military  incapacity  of, 

325,  332 
Prince  Edward  Island  (St.  Jean), 
5,  243.  244  ;  separated  from 
Nova  Scotia,  302  ;  enters  Con- 
federation, 403.  .SVt' Charlotte- 
town 
Princess  Louise,  her  interest  in 

Canadian  art,  420 
Privy    Council.        See    Judicial 

Committee 
Proclamation  of  1763,   274,  275 
Procter,  General,  324,  237 
Protection  in  Canada,  407 


Quebec  Act  of  1774,  276-279 
Quebec,    city   of,    1-3 ;    named, 
70 ;    founded,   70 ;    taken    by 
Kirk,  88  ;  besieged  by  Phips, 


199-201  ;  by  Wolfe,  248-257  ; 
plan  of  siege  of  1759,  251; 
surrender  of,  25S  ;  besieged 
by  Levis,  262  ;  by  Arnold  and 
Montgomery,  284-2S6  ;  view 
of,  in  1760,  270  ;  in  1896,  426. 
^f^  Chateau  St.  Louis 

Quebec  Conference  of  1864, 
Confederation    proposed,   372 

Quebec,  province  of,  8,  9  ;  enters 
Confederation,  374 

Queylus,  Abbe,  157,  158 


Radisson,  Sieur,  17 

Railways   in  Canada,   366,  367, 

41S 
Rale,    Sebastian,    missionary    in 

Acadia,  212 
Ramesay,  M.  de,  in  Acadia,  219; 

surrenders  Quebec,  258 
Razilly,    Isaac    de,    in    Acadia, 

97-99 
Reade,  John,    Canadian  author, 

419 

Rebellion  Losses,  Riots  of  1849, 

369.  370 

Rebellions  in  Canada  ;  of  1837- 
38,  in  Lower  Canada,  338-343, 
35^.  35V357  ;  in  Upper  Can- 
ada, 344-351,  352-355  ;  in  the 
Northwest  (1869),  387-392  ; 
(•885),  393-400 

Reciprocity  Treaty,  376 

Recollets  or  Franciscans,  80,  81, 
89 

Red  River  settlement  (Assini- 
boia),  384-3S7  ;  insurrection 
at  (1S69-70),  337-392.  See 
Riel 

Responsible  Government  in  Can- 
ada, 361-365  ;  in  Nova  Scotia, 
362-364  ;  in  New  Brunswick, 
364  ;  in  P.  E.  Island,  ib.  ;  in 
British  Columbia,  405  ;  fa- 
mous advocates  of,  364,  365 

Revolution,  American.  See 
American  Revolution 


IXDEX 


461 


Richardson,     Major,    Canadian 

author,  27  r,  419 
Richelieu,  Cardinal,  86 
Richelieu  River,  72,  73 
Riel.  Louis,  rebels  against  Can- 
da  in  186(9-70,    3SS  ;  in    1885, 
393-400  ;  execution  of,  379 
Roberts,    C.    G.    D.,    Canadian 

poet,  419 
Roberval,   Jean    Frant^ois  de   la 

Rocjue,  45,  46 
Robinson,  Chief  Justice,  344 
Robinson,  Christopher,  298 
Roche,  Martjuis  de  la,  47 
Rogers,  Major  Robert,  269 
Rolph,  Dr.  John,  Canadian  re- 
former, 353 
Roman  Catholics  of  Canada,  freed 
from    civil    disabilitie?,    278  ; 
number  of  (1896),  415 
Royal  Society  of  Canada,  418 
Royal    William,  first  steamship 

to  cross  Atlantic,  358 
Rupert's  Land.  381  ;  history  of, 
under   fur   traders,    381-386  ; 
part  of   Dominion,   387.     See 
Northwest  of  Canada 
Ryerson,Egerton,  350,  368 
Ryswick,  Treaty  of,  204 


S 


St.  Alban's  Bank,  raid  on,  377 
Saint-Caslin,  Baron  de,  in  Aca- 
dia, 171,  172 
St.  Croix,   Island  of,  in  Acadia, 

53,  54 
St.  Croix  River,  36 
St.  Foy,  Battle  of,  262 
St.  Ignace,   mission  of,  attacked 

by  Iroquois,  142 
St.    John   River,  53  ;  La    Tour's 

fort  on,  99,  103 
St.  Joseph,  mission  of,  attacked 

by  Iroquois,  142 
St.  Lawrence  River,  discovery  of 

34,   35  ;  valley  of,    8  ;  moun- 
tains of,  ib. 
St.  Louis.  Chateau.   See  Chateau 

St.  Louis 


Saint-Lusson,    Sieur,     in       the 

West,  177 
St,    Pierre  and  Micjuelon,    Isles 

of,  266 
St.     Sacrement.     Lac  du    (Lake 

George),  137 
Ste.  Anne  de  Beaupre,  Canadian 

Lourdes,    432,   433  ;   view   of 

church  at,  433 
Ste.  Marie,  Jesuit  mission,  141, 

143,  145 
Saguenay  River,  35 

Salaberry,   Colonel  de,    at   Cha- 

teauguay,    328  ;     portrait    of, 

329 

Salle,  Sieur  de  la,  in  the  West, 
183-188  ;  on  the  Mississippi, 
1S8,  1S9  ;  assassination  of, 
190  ;  autograph  and  portrait 
of,   185 

".Sam  Slick."     See  Ilaliburton 

.San  Juan  difficulty,  375 

Saskatchewan  River,  Riel's  re- 
bellion in  district  of,  393-400; 
monument  on,  400 

Sault-au-Matelot,  286 

Sault  Ste.  Marie,  177,  223 

Schools.      See  Education 

Schultz,  Dr.,  at  Red  River,  390 

Science  in  Canada,  eminent 
writers,  418,  419 

Scott,  Duncan  Campbell,  Cana- 
dian i)oet,  419 

Scott,  (J.  Frederick,  Jr.,  Cana- 
dian poet,  419 

Scott,  Thomas,  murdered  by 
Riel,  390,  391 

Secord,  Laura,  her  courage,  326 

Seigniorial  Tenure,  87,  165  ; 
abolition  of,  367 

Selkirk,  Lord,  on  the  Red 
River,  384  ;  death  of,  385 

Selkirk  Range,  16,  17 

Senate  of  Canada,  422 

Senecas,  division  of  the  Iroquois 
Confederation,  118.  See  Iro- 
quois 

Shirley,  General,  231 

Sillery,  133 

Simcoe,      General,     lieutenant- 


462 


IXDEX. 


governor  of  Upper  Canatia, 
306,  309-311  ;  portrait  of,  311 

Six  Nations.     See  Irocjuois 

Smith  Sir  Donald,  at  Red 
River.  390 

Souriquois.      See  Micmacs 

Stadacona  (Quebec),  36 

"Starved  Rock"  on  the  Illinois. 
189 

Stoney  Creek,  Battle  of,  325 

Strachan,  Bishop,  342,  347  ;  por- 
trait of,  ib. 

Strange,  Colonel,  397 

Sulpicians  in  Canada,   133,  136, 

157,  158 

Suite,  Benjamin,  French  Cana- 
dian author,  440 

Sydenham,  Lord.  See  Thom- 
son, Poulett 


Tache,  Archbishop,  390,  291 

Talbot,  Thomas,  310 

Talon.  J.  Baptiste,  Canadian  in- 

tendant,  157,  168 
Tecumseh,    Indian    chief,    322, 

327 
Temple,  Sir  Thomas,  in  Acadia, 

108 

Thayendanegea.  See  Brant, 
Joseph 

Thompson,  Sir  John,  Canadian 
premier,  324 

Thomson,  Poulett  (Lord  Syden- 
ham), Canadian  governor,  361, 
362 

Ticonderoga  (Carillon),  Fort, 
222,  248.  426 

Tilley,  Sir  Leonard,  Canadian 
statesman,  a  founder  of  con- 
federation, 413 

Tobacco     Nation     (Tionotates), 

117,  144 

Tonty,  Henry  de  (of  the  copper 
hand),  186.  188,  208 

Toronto  (Fort  Rouille).  222,  247  ; 
first  knovi'n  as  York,  309  ;  Uni- 
versity of,  347  ;  population  of, 
<^i6 


Tracy,     Marquis    de,    Canadian 

viceroy,  152.  155 
Trajjper,  Canadian,  173 
Trinity.  Cape,  9 
Trinity     College     at     Toronto, 

founded,  347 
Tupper,    Sir   Charles,  Canadian 

statesman,  298,  368  ;  a  founder 

of  confederation,  373,  413 
Tuscaroras.     See  Iroquois 

U 

Union  Act  of  1840,  361-368 
United  States,  population  of,  in 
18 12,  316  ;  relations  of  Canada 
with,  from  1840  to  1867,  379 
Universities  of   Canada,  princi- 
pal, 417 
University  of  Toronto,  347 
Upper  Canada.     .SW'  Ontario 
Upper     Canada     Gazette,      first 
Upper    Canadian   newspaper, 

315, 
Ursulines,  convent  of,  131 
Utrecht,  Treaty  of   208 


Varennes,  202 

Vaudreuil,  Marquis  de,  Cana- 
dian governor,  229  ;  at  siege 
of  Quebec,  24S,  252,  256;  capit- 
ulates at  Montreal,  264  ;  death 
of,  268 

Vercheres,  Madelaine  de,  her 
heroism,  202 

Vcrendryes,  the,  in  the  West, 
3S1  ;  reach  Rockies,  382  ;  on 
the  Red  and  Assiniboine 
Rivers,  384 

Verrazano,  Ciovanni  da,  26,  27 

Victoria  Bridge,  367 

Victoires,  Notre-Dame  des,  at 
Quebec,  2,  201,  207 

Vignau,  Nicholas,  deceives 
Champlain,  77,  78 

Ville-Marie.     See  Montreal 

Vinland,  Norse  discovery,  20 

Von  Egmond,  Colonel,  during 
rebellion  of  1836,  353,  354 


J\DLX. 


463 


W 

Walker.  Admiral  Hovenden,  207 
War  of  1812-15,  causes  of,  316, 
320  ;  patriotism  of  Canadians 
during, 320-322;  ca|)itulationof 
Hull,  322  ;  Battle  of  (^ueenston 
Heights,  ih.;  i'rocter's  victory 
over  Winchester,  324  ;  taking 
of  York  (Toronto),  ib.;  Ameri- 
can successes  on  Niagara  fron- 
tierin  1813,325  ;  Stoney  Creek, 
ib.;  Mrs.  Secord's  exploit,  326: 
Fitzgibbon's  success  at  De 
Ceu's.  326  ;  English  defeat  on 
Lake  Erie,  327  ;  Procter's  de- 
feat at  Moraviantown,  //'.  ,• 
Chrystler'sfarm,  328;  Chateau- 
guay,  328 ;  American  out- 
rage at  Niagara,  330  ;  English 
retaliate,  330,  335  ;  Riall's 
defeat,  331  ;  Lundy's  Lane, 
ib.;  Frevost's  defeat  on  Lake 
Champlain,  and  retreat  from 
Piattsburg,  332  ;  naval  fights, 
334  :  peace,  335  ;  effect  of,  on 
Canada,  335,  336  ;  conspicu- 
ous Canadian  actors  during, 
336,  337  ;  monuments  of,  333, 
336,  337 
Washington,  George,  at  Fort 
Necessity,  224 


Washington  Treaty  of  1871,  324 
Wetherald,  Ethel wyn,  Canadian 

poetess,  419 
Whelan,       Edward,       Canadian 

journalist,  406 
Willcocks,      Joseph,      Canadian 

agitator,  314,  320 
William  Henry.  Fort,  222,  238 
Williams,  Colonel,  his  gallantry 

at  Batoche  (18S5),  397  ;  death 

of,  ib.  ;  portrait  of,  399 
Wilmot,    Lemuel    A.,   Canadian 

statesman,    364  ;    portrait   of, 

371 
Winnipeg,  city  of,  14,  315,  3S2, 

392 
Wolfe,  General  James,  242  ;  at 
Louisbourg,  242  ;  at  Quebec, 
250-256  ;  wins  Canada  for 
England,  256,  257  ;  death  of. 
257  ;  tharacter  of  2f)0  ;  monu- 
ments to,  259,  261  ;  portrait 
of,  249 

Wolseley,     Lon.,    leads    British 
forces  against    Riel   in    1S70, 

391 
Wyandots  (Hurons),  144 


York.     Set'  Toronto 


XLhc  Stor^  of  the  IRations. 


Messrs.  G.  P.  PUTNAM'S  SONS  take  pleasure  in 
annoiincini^  that  they  have  in  course  of  pubHcation,  in 
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In  the  story  form  the  current  of  eacli  national  life  is 
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historical  authorities  have  resulted  in  definite  conclusions. 

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present  in  a  comprehensive  narrative  the  chief  events  in 


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GREECE.  Prof.  Jas.  A.  Harri- 
son. 

ROME.    ArthurCilman. 

THE  JEWS.  Prof.  James  K.Hos- 
mer. 

CHALDEA.    Z.  A.  Ragozin. 

GERMANY.    S.  Baring-Could. 

NO'.V  AY.  Hjalmar  H.  Boye- 
sen. 

SPAIN.  Rev.  E.  E.  and  Susan 
Hale. 

HUNG^RY.   Prof.  A.  Vambery. 

CARTHAGE.  Prof.  Alfred  J. 
Church. 

THE  SARACENS.  Arthur  Gil- 
man. 

THE  MOORS  IN  SPAIN.  Stan- 
ley Lane-Poole. 

THE  NORMANS.  Sarah  Orne 
Jewett. 

PERSIA.    S.  G.  W.  Benjamin. 

ANCIENT  EGYPT.  Prof.  Geo. 
Rawlinson. 

ALEXANDER'S  EMPIRE.  Prof. 
J.  P.  Mahaffy. 

ASSYRIA.    Z.  A.  Ragozin. 

THE  GOTHS.    Henry  Bradley. 

IRELAND.    Hon.  Emily  Lawless. 

TURKEY.     Stanley   Lane-Poole. 

MEDIA,  BABYLON,  AND  PER- 
SIA.   Z.  A.  Ragozin. 

MEDI>CVAL  FRANCE.  Prof. 
Gustave  Masson. 

HOLLAND.  Prof.  J.  Thorold 
Rogers. 

MEXICO.    Susan  Hale. 

PHCENICIA.     Geo.  Rawlinson. 


THE    HANSA   TOWNS.     Helen 

Zimmern. 
EARLY  BRITAIN.    Prof.  Alfred 

J.  Church. 
THE     BARBARY     CORSAIRS. 

Stanley  Lane-Poole. 
RUSSIA.    W.  R.  Morfill. 
THE  JEWS  UNDER  ROME.    W. 

D.  Morrison. 
SCOTLAND.    John  Mackintosh. 
SWITZERLAND.    R.  Stead  and 

Mrs.  A.   Hug. 
PORTUGAL.    H.  Morse  Stevens. 
THE  BYZANTINE  EMPIRE.  C. 

W.  C.  Oman. 
SICILY.     E.  A.  Freeman. 
THE      TUSCAN      REPUBLICS. 

Bella  Duffy. 
POLAND.    W.  R.  Morfill. 
PARTHIA.     Geo.  Rawlinson. 
JAPAN.    David   Murray. 
THE    CHRISTIAN    RECOVERY 

OF  SPAIN.    H.E.  Watts. 
AUSTRALASIA.      Greville    Tre- 

garthen. 
SOUTHERN  AFRICA.    Geo.  M. 

Theal. 
VENICE.    AletheaWiel. 
THE  CRUS'VDES.    T.S.Archer 

and  C.  L.  Kingsford. 
VEDIC  INDIA.    Z.  A.  Ragozin. 
BOHEMIA.    C.E.Maurice. 
CANADA.    J.  G.  Bourinot. 
THE   BALKAN    STATES.     Wil- 
liam  Miller. 
BRITISH   RULE    IN   INDIA.     R. 

W.  Frazer. 


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Iberoee  of  the  IRatlona 

kDITEU   liY 

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A  Series  of  biographical  studies  of  the  hvcs  and  work 
of  a  number  of  representative  historical  characters  about 
whom  have  gathered  the  great  traditions  of  the  Nations 
to  which  they  belonged,  and  wlio  have  been  accepted,  in 
many  instances,  as  types  of  the  several  National  ideals. 
With  the  life  of  each  typical  character  will  be  presented 
a  picture  of  the  National  conditions  surrounding  him 
during  his  career. 

The  narratives  are  the  work  of  writers  who  are  recog 
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nected with  them. 

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decimo  volume,  handsomely  printed   in   large  type,  pro- 
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The  first  group  of  the  Series  comprises  the  following 
volumes : 

Nelson,  and  the  Naval  Supremacy  of  England.  Hy  W.  Ci.ark 
krssn  I,,  author  "f  "  I  he  Wrcitv  of  the  dri^veuoi,'  rt«: 

Gustavus  Adoiphus,  and  the  Mruggle  of  Prote^tantl&li.  for  Exist- 
ence.    BvC.  k.  L.  FletcHKR,  M.A.,  kite  Fellow  of  All  Souls  (oUc^'e. 

Pericles,  andf  the  Golden  Age  of  Athens.     Hy  Kvklvn  Ahhoti,  M.A. 

Theodoric  the  Goth,  the  Barbarian  Champion  of  Civilisation.  Hy 
Thonivs  n'>i)(;KiN,  author  of  "  Italy  and  Her  Invaders."  etc. 

Sir  Philip  Sidney,  and  the  Chivalry  of  Enc^land.  hy  11.  K.  Fox- 
BOl'RNK,  author  of  "The  Life  of  John  I.ocke,  '  etc. 

Julius  Caesar,  and  the  Organisation  of  the  Roman  Empire.  IW  W. 
WarI'E  F»)\vi  kk,  M.A.,  Fellow  of  Lincoln  C'.ille|.;e.  ().xford. 

John  Wyclif,  Last  of  the  Schoolmen  and  First  of  the  English  Re- 
formers.     Hy  I  EWIS  SLkc.KANT,  author  of  "  New  (ireece,"  etc. 

Napoleon,  Warrior  and  Ruler,  and  the  Military  Supremacy  of 
Revolutionary  France.     Hy  W.  OTn.sNOK  .Morris. 

Henry  of  Navarre,  and  the  Huguenots  in  France.  Hy  P.  F.  Willkrt, 
M.A.,  Fellow  of  Kxcter  College,  Oxford. 

Cicero,  and  the  Fall  of  the  Roman  Republic.  I>y  J.  L.  .Strachan 
Davidson,  M.A..  Fellow  of  Halliol  College,  Oxford, 

Abraham  Lincoln,  and  the  Downfall  of  American  Slavery.  Hy 
Noah  Brooks. 

Prince  Henry  (of  Portugal)  the  Navigator,  and  the  Age  of  Dis- 
covery.    By  C.  K.  Hkazlkv,  Fellow  of  Merton  College,  Oxford. 

Julian  the  Philosopher,  and  the  Last  Struggle  of  Paganism  against 
Christianity.     Hy  Alkf.  Ci\Ri)NER. 

Louis  XIV.,  and  the  Zenith  of  the  French  Monarchy.  Hy  Arthur 
Has.sall,  M.A..  Senior  Student  of  Christ  ('hurrh  Collepje,  CJxford. 

Charles  XU.,  and  the  Collapse  of  the  Swedish  Empire,  1682-1719. 
Hy  R.  NisRFT  Hain. 

Lorenzo  de'  Medici.     Hy  Edward  Armstrong,  M.A. 

Jeanne  d'Arc.     By  Mrs.  Omphant. 

Christopher  C  jlumbus.     By  VVASHiNOTfJN  Irving. 

Robert  the  Bruce,  and  the  Struggle  for  Scottish  Independence. 
Hy  Sir  IlKRiiKRi  Maxwkll.  M.P. 

To  be  followed  by  : 

The  Cid  Campeador,  and  the  Waning  of  the  Crescent  in  the  West. 

By  H.  Butler  Clarke,  Windham  College,  Oxford. 
Hannibal,  and  the  Crisis  of  the  Struggle  between  Carthage  and 

Rome.     By  W.  O'Connor  Morris,  author  of  *'  Napoleon."  etc. 
Moltke,   and   the    Military    Supremacy  of  Germany.     By  Spencer 

Wilkinson,  University  of  London. 
Bismarck.     The  New  German  Empire,  How  it  Arose  and  What  it 

Displaced.     By  J.  W.   IIedlam,   M.A.,  Fellow  of  King's  College, 

Camliridge. 
Judas  Maccabaeus,  the  Conflict  between  Hellenism  and  Hebraism. 

By  Abraham  Isaacs,  author  of  the  "  Life  of  the  Jews  in  the  Middle 

Ages." 
Henry  V.,  the  English  Hero  King.     By  Charles  L.  Kingsford,  joint- 
author  of  the  *'  Story  of  the  Crusades." 


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